Main Navigation

 

 

The Power Hour Past News

 

MARCH 2015 

Tuesday - March 31, 2015 - Today in History:

1889 - French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel unfurled the French tricolor from atop the Eiffel Tower to mark its completion.
1917 - The United States took possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark.
1967 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Consular Treaty, the first bi-lateral pact with the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution.
1970 - The U.S. forces in Vietnam down a MIG-21, it was the first since September 1968.
1976 - The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that coma patient Karen Anne Quinlan could be disconnected from her respirator. (Quinlan remained comatose and died in 1985.)
1992 - The U.N. Security Council voted to ban flights and arms sales to Libya, branding it a terrorist state for shielding six men accused of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 and a French airliner.
1995 - Singer Selena, 23, was shot to death in Corpus Christi, Texas, by the founder of her fan club.
2004 - 4 American contractors were killed in Fallujah, Iraq; frenzied crowds dragged their burned, mutilated bodies and strung two of them from a bridge.
2005 - Terri Schiavo died at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a wrenching right-to-die dispute.

World News

US/NATO Laser Weapon Test Destroys Germanwings Airliner Killing 150 Civilians: Obama angrily refuses to meet with the leaders of NATO
Syrian Free Press - The Ministry of Defense (MoD) is reporting today that dispatches from the Northern Fleet (NF) appear to show that yesterdays downing of Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 in southern France yesterday was the “direct result” of a failed US Air Force test of its High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS) attempting to shoot down an ICBM reentry vehicle, but which, instead, destroyed this civilian airliner killing all 150 aboard.

US Backs Joint Arab Military Force, Ready to Cooperate
Sputnik News - The United States has backed the Arab League's decision to create a joint military force to counter security threats in the Middle East, and will cooperate with it if need be, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said. A plan to set up a unified force amid the unfolding crisis in Yemen was announced Sunday at the 26th summit of Arab leaders in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.... "These are partners and security allies of ours, and when they act in a way that we regard as in our interests as well as theirs we will continue to partner with them as we have been in other matters," the US defense secretary stressed.

Canadian Lawmakers Endorse Airstrikes on ISIL Targets in Syria
Sputnik News - The Canadian parliament has endorsed the government's plan to launch airstrikes against Islamist State (ISIL) targets in Syria, in addition to its military participation in Iraq bombing raids, the office of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said.... The motion has extended Canada's military mission against the violent ISIL militant group for up to 12 months to the end of March 2016. Canada has around 70 troops stationed in northern Iraq and regularly flies warplanes to pound ISIL positions in this country as part of the US-led coalition.

Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz was in therapy for 'suicidal tendencies'
The Telegraph - German prosecutors investigating the case said Lubitz's medical files showed that he underwent a prolonged course of treatment for serious psychological problems before obtaining his pilot's licence. The files also showed he had visited mental health specialists more recently, who had issued him with sick notes. Several torn up sick notes are believed to have been found in a search of Lubitz's Düsseldorf flat – including one for the day of the crash.

Turkey struck by biggest power cut in 15 years, investigation underway (VIDEO)
RT - The worst power outage in 15 years struck most of Turkey, grounding flights and crippling rail networks. The government scrambled efforts to investigate the power cut, before energy was partially restored in the afternoon. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says all potential causes are still being investigated, “including the possibility of a terror attack,". "Whether or not terrorism is a high possibility or a low one I can’t say at this stage. I can’t say either whether it is a cyber attack," energy minister Taner Yildiz told reports.

'45 people killed, 65 injured': Yemen refugee camp hit by airstrike
RT - 45 people were killed and another 65 injured in an airstrike by a Saudi-led coalition at a refugee camp in Houthi-controlled northern Yemen on Monday, the International Organization for Migration (IMO) said. The bombardment took place in the vicinity of the Mazraq refugee camp, Joel Millman, IMO spokesman told Reuters, citing the organization’s staff on the ground. It was not immediately clear how many of the casualties were civilians and how many were armed personnel, he added.

US Military Gloats Over ISIS Victories In Iraq, Rushes In To Save It From Iran
Brandon Turbeville - According to the Military Times, nearly 20,000 Shiite militias withdrew from the Tikrit battleground after the Iraqi government agreed to pause its cooperation and coordination with the Iranian government. The Iraqi government agreed to take control of all the military operations from here on. The United States imposed two conditions on the Iraqi government before it would agree to provide any assistance in the fight against ISIS that the Iraqi government end cooperation with Iran and that the Iraqi government assume command over forces on the ground.

Greece to turn to Russia for economic help - media
RT - The Greek government reportedly plans to negotiate a possible reduction in gas prices from Russia and the lifting of the embargo on certain types of Greek products. Relief from the food embargo would particularly cover fresh fruit, reported Der Spiegel on Sunday. It will be put to the Russian government by Greece’s Industrial Reform Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis and Syriza MP Thanasis Petrakos during their two-day visit to Moscow on March 30 and 31.

VIDEO: Voice Recording Reveals Germanwings Pilot’s Calm Words Moments Before Crash…
Breitbart - Voice recordings on the black box on Germanwings flight 4U9252 have revealed killer co-pilot Andreas Lubitz calmly responded “hopefully” and “we’ll see” when asked by pilot Patrick Sondenheimer whether the plane was ready for landing. Sky News reports that the voice transcript, published by German tabloid Bild, reveals how Lubitz encouraged Sondenheimer to go to the toilet before locking him out of the cockpit and crashing to the plane into the French Alps.

UK Medical Chiefs Call for Fracking Ban
Sputnik - A group of 20 high-profile doctors and medical academics have called for a ban on hydraulic fracturing in the United Kingdom as it poses, as they say, an "inherent risk" to public and environmental health. "The arguments against fracking on public health and ecological grounds are overwhelming. There are clear grounds for adopting the precautionary principle and prohibiting fracking," medical professionals said in a letter published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on Monday.

Ebola news

Guinea declares 45-day Ebola emergency
Press TV - In a statement published in national media on Saturday, Guinean President Alpha Conde said that he was declaring the health emergency in the west and southwest of the country, adding that the focus of the virus “has shifted to our country’s coastal areas.” “That is why I am declaring a reinforced health emergency for a period of 45 days in the prefectures of Forecariah, Coyah, Dubreka, Boffa and Kindia,” he said.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Connecticut's Democratic governor bans taxpayer-funded travel to Indiana over 'religious freedom' law
Daily Mail - Connecticut will become the first state to bar travel to Indiana since its governor signed the religious freedom law last Thursday. Seattle, Washington, and San Francisco, California, have sent out similar orders, however. The bill, signed into law by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, has the effect of giving individuals legal cover to refuse a customer's business if it would violate a religious belief to fulfill the request. Civil rights groups are characterizing the law as discriminatory, particularly against LGBT persons, and Republican lawmakers in the state today said they'd be open to clarifying the bill's intent through legislative changes.

Pentagon Loses $500 Million in Yemen, Gets a $96 Billion Budget Increase
The New American - Barely a week after learning that the military brass can’t account for some $500 million worth of weapons and equipment given to Yemen, Congress last week moved to compensate for the cuts in military spending required by the 2013 sequester law by approving a spending bill for $5.5 trillion over the next decade, including $96 billion in off-budget accounts for war-related funding… The missing supplies, according to a Washington Post report, include hundreds of guns, more than a million rounds of ammunition, four hand-launched drones and body armor. Also among the missing and unaccounted for items are three airplanes, four helicopters, and 160 Humvees.

NSA Fails to Prevent Crossdressers From Invading Headquarters Despite Mass Surveillance
Kit Daniels - The NSA failed to prevent two crossdressers from invading its headquarters despite the agency claiming its mass surveillance program helps thwart criminal activity. Two men who were dressed as women tried to ram their SUV through a gate at the NSA headquarters in Ft. Meade, Md., on Monday, prompting security to kill one of the men and seriously injure the other. “The FBI said … it was conducting an investigation with NSA police and other law enforcement agencies, and interviewing witnesses on the scene,” CNN reported.

Was Hillary Clinton, While Secretary of State, Running a Secret Spy Network?
AllGov - A trove of emails released two years ago show that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had access to intelligence from a private spy network run by an old confidant… One of the emails pointed out the deteriorating security situation right before the Benghazi consulate was stormed, citing “an extremely sensitive source” who pointed out the numerous bombings and kidnapping of aid workers and diplomats by those thought to be loyal to the late Libyan Prime Minister Muammar Gaddafi, ProPublica reported. Despite the information gathered by Clinton’s network, she said after the Benghazi attacks of September 2012 that U.S. intelligence officials had had no advance warning of the threat.

Supreme Court May Hear Case on Banning US flag on Cinco de Mayo
Breitbart - The U.S. Supreme Court, prompted by the May 5, 2010 incident at Live Oak High School near San Jose where several students were punished after they wore shirts emblazoned with the American flag on Cinco de Mayo, may institute new standards for free speech. On Cinco de Mayo 2009, Mexican-American students at the school raised a Mexican flag and marched around the campus, some white students responded by chanting, “USA! USA!” The white students answered one year later with the shirts adorned by American flags; the Mexican-American students then called them racists and protested to Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez.

‘Mike Brown’ Assault Victim: ‘No One Helped, People Were Laughing’
Paul Joseph Watson - A man assaulted by three thugs for refusing to discuss the “Mike Brown situation” while riding the MetroLink in St. Louis last week has spoken out, saying that other passengers not only refused to help, but laughed throughout his ordeal. The 43-year-old white victim was punched and kicked in the face after one of the attackers sat next to him and asked him what he thought about the “Mike Brown situation,” a reference to the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown last year which prompted widespread unrest and an increase in violence against police officers.

Proposed Colorado Bill Upholds Right to Film Police in Public
Adan Salazar - Bill would impose $15,000 civil penalty if a cop interferes with right to film. A Colorado state representative has proposed a bill that would make it illegal for police to interfere with a citizen journalist’s right to film them in public. House Bill 15-1290, introduced by Rep. Joe Salazar, (D-Thornton), aims to protect the public’s right to film by prohibiting police officers from interfering with the recording of another officer. “Primarily, it came up as a result of the number of news reports we’ve been seeing about police officers telling people, ‘Give me your camera,’ or taking the data away, and that is unacceptable conduct,” Rep. Salazar told 7News Denver.

Veteran News

Former VA Chief Of Staff Linked To Gulf War Scandal
DisabledVeterans.org - A new Newsweek report claims former VA chief of staff John Gingrich is linked to the initial Gulf War chemical weapons cover-up as an Army battalion commander in 1991. The Newsweek report claims Gingrich not only knew of the side effects from US troops’ own demolition of chemical weapons, but that he also was ordered to cover it up by his superiors and did so.

Economy & Business

$20 Oil Looms As Iran-Nuclear Deal Nears Deadline
Zero Hedge - As the deadline for Iran nuclear talks looms, the possibility of a deal which in some way lifts crude export sanctions is starting to be realized. … Iran is a sleeping oil giant holding 9% of the world’s proven oil reserves and with an estimated 2m barrels per day of excess supply already sloshing around international markets, any significant increase in Iranian output could easily trigger a further rout in prices. While OPEC may well clamp down on this in June, as The Telegraph concludes, by then a barrel of oil may already be selling for $20.

Repeal, Don’t Reform the IMF!
Ron Paul - A responsible financial institution would not extend a new loan of between 17 and 40 billion dollars to a borrower already struggling to pay back an existing multi-billion dollar loan. Yet that is just what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) did last month when it extended a new loan to the government of Ukraine. This new loan may not make much economic sense, but propping up the existing Ukrainian government serves the foreign policy agenda of the US government. Since the IMF receives most of its funding from the United States, it is hardly surprising that it would tailor its actions to advance the US government’s foreign policy goals.

Science & Technology

DEA and Secret Service Agents Busted For Stealing Over $1 Million In Bitcoins
Daily Sheeple - A new criminal report from the Department of Justice claims that two of their own, a DEA agent who was recently hailed as a hero for bringing down the Dread Pirate Roberts, and a Secret Service agent, used their influence and resources to steal and extort over $1 million in Bitcoins during the course of their investigation into the underground Silk Road market.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

Hummingbird Migration Map
Hummingbirds.net - This website is a place to learn about attracting, watching, feeding, and studying the hummingbirds that breed in North America. Included is a map where you can track and report your sightings. This map is very helpful to know when to put your feeders out.


Superbugs Go Airborne, Triggering Fears of Global Epidemic
Sputnik News - Antibiotic-resistant genes, that evolved in the crowded atmosphere of Texas commercial cattle ranches, have gone airborne and are now capable of "traveling for long distances." Researchers at Texas Tech University studied the particulate matter blown up over the Texas Panhandle and South Plains from the large feedlots where 5 million beef cattle are raised for slaughter yearly. They found that air downwind from the feedlots contained significantly more antibiotic-resistant bacteria DNA that air upwind, they concluded in their paper published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

North Dakota Takes Bold Step Forward On Commercial Hemp Industry, Tells Feds To Stay Out
Huffington Post - North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple (R) signed a bill into law on Friday that lays the groundwork for a commercial hemp industry and explicitly cuts the federal government out of the state's licensing process. House Bill 1436 establishes guidelines for the state's industrial hemp program and allows people to apply to grow the plant for either research or commercial purposes. With its provision for commercial hemp, the law goes beyond the federal Farm Bill, passed by Congress last year, which allowed some states to cultivate the plant, but only for research purposes and in more restricted pilot programs.

Health

Medical Tyranny in Tennessee: Forced Antibiotics on Newborns
Health Impact News - The Times Free Press in Chattanooga Tennessee reported last week that the Erlanger Health System was going to start forcing all newborn babies in their health facilities to receive an antibiotic ointment applied to their eyes at birth, whether their parents want it or not. Even if nurses and midwives attending the birth do not approve of the antibiotic ointment, the hospital allegedly stated that they will apply it anyway, using security guards at the patient’s bedside if need be.

Magnesium for Anxiety Relief
Natural News Blogs - A meta-analysis concluded that several natural supplements had positive effects on anxiety, and one of the most promising was magnesium. Magnesium is a necessary precursor for over 300 biochemical reactions, yet it is estimated that at least 68% of Americans are magnesium deficient. Similar numbers of people are deficient in most developed countries across the world.



Monday - March 30, 2015 - Today in History:

1814 - The allied European nations against Napoleon marched into Paris.
1822 - Florida became a U.S. territory.
1842 - Dr. Crawford W. Long performed the first operation while his patient was anesthetized by ether.
1855 - About 5,000 "Border Ruffians" from western Missouri invaded the territory of Kansas and forced the election of a pro-slavery legislature. It was the first election in Kansas.
1867 - The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars.
1870 - The 15th amendment, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race, was passed by the U.S. Congress.
1870 - Texas was readmitted to the Union.
1903 - Revolutionary activity in the Dominican Republic brought U.S. troops to Santo Domingo to protect American interests.
1905 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was chosen to mediate in the Russo-Japanese peace talks.
1916 - Pancho Villa killed 172 at the Guerrero garrison in Mexico.
1936 - Britain announced a naval construction program of 38 warships.
1944 - The U.S. fleet attacked Palau, near the Philippines.
1945 - The U.S.S.R. invaded Austria during World War II.
1946 - The Allies seized 1,000 Nazis attempting to revive the Nazi party in Frankfurt.
1950 - U.S. President Truman denounced Senator Joe McCarthy as a saboteur of U.S. foreign policy.
1972 - The Eastertide Offensive began when North Vietnamese troops crossed into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the northern portion of South Vietnam.
1975 - As the North Vietnamese forces moved toward Saigon South Vietnamese soldiers mob rescue jets in desperation.
1981 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded in Washington, DC, by John W. Hinckley Jr. Two police officers and Press Secretary James Brady were also wounded.
1982 - The space shuttle Columbia completed its third and its longest test flight after 8 days in space.
1984 - The U.S. ended its participation in the multinational peace force in Lebanon.
2006 - American reporter Jill Carroll, a freelancer for The Christian Science Monitor, was released after 82 days as a hostage in Iraq.
2009 - President Barack Obama asserted unprecedented government control over the auto industry, rejecting GM and Chrysler's restructuring plans and engineering the ouster of GM's chief executive, Rick Wagoner..

World News

Retreat or be bombed, Yemeni rebels told
The Telegraph - Saudi-led bombing raids will continue in Yemen until Shia insurgents who have taken control of swathes of the country "withdraw and surrender their weapons", the Arab League said on Sunday. Officials from Sunni Arab states, attending a summit in the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheikh, also announced plans to set up a joint reaction force to tackle uprisings in the region.

Australia To Start Taxing Bank Deposits
Zero Hedge - According to Australia's ABC News, the "Federal Government looks set to introduce a tax on bank deposits in the May budget."Ironically, the idea of a bank deposit tax was raised by Labor in 2013 and was criticized by Tony Abbott at the time. Much has changed in two years, and as ABC reports, assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has indicated an announcement on the new tax could be made before the budget.

Saudi Arabia-led Coalition Intensifies Airstrikes Against Houthis in Yemen
Sputnik News - A Saudi-Arabia led coalition intensified its airstrikes against the Houthi rebels’ positions in Yemen, Sky News Arabia reported Sunday. The coalition planes bombed Houthis’ positions in Al Hudaydah governorate in the West of Yemen, close to the Al Hunaydah airport, and in the Marib governorate in the centre of the country. The coalition also targeted the Taiz governorate.

Arab League agrees to create joint Arab military force - Egypt's president
RT - "The Arab leaders have decided to agree on the principle of a joint Arab military force," Sisi said Sunday as the summit wrapped up. The summit final communique called for "coordination, efforts and steps to establish an unified Arab force" to intervene in countries such as Yemen. The Egyptian leader said a high-level panel will work out the structure and mechanism of the future force. The work is expected to take four months.

What's REALLY Going On In Yemen
Washington's Blog - Confused about the war in Yemen? Here’s what’s really going on. Yemen – previously called “Aden” – has one of the oldest civilizations in the Middle East. But it has been racked with violence for a long time…

Iran Deal Reached in Switzerland
Breitbart - The news agency Agence France-Presse reports from Lausanne, Switzerland that Iran and the P5+1 powers (the five UN Security Council permanent members, plus Germany) have reached “provisional agreement” on the terms of nuclear deal. Though the terms were not released as the news broke at roughly 9:15 a.m. EDT, the framework is thought to be generous to Iran, as the U.S. and other western nations had caved on key positions in the days leading up to a March 31 deadline.

Saudi Arabia says it won't rule out building nuclear weapons
The Independent - Saudi Arabia will not rule out building or acquiring nuclear weapons, the country’s ambassador to the United States has indicated.... The ambassador’s reticence to rule out a military nuclear programme may reignite concerns that the autocratic monarchy has its eye on a nuclear arsenal.

Russia 'to join China-led development bank'
Yahoo News - Russia is to sign up to the Chinese-led development bank AIIB, first deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov said Saturday at an international forum in China, cited by Russian news agencies… The Beijing-backed AIIB, unveiled in October, is a multinational lender that the United States perceives as a threat to the Washington-led World Bank. It has proved highly successful with countries that are US allies, however, with Britain, Germany, France, Italy and this week South Korea all saying they intend to join the $50 billion (46 billion euro) bank.

Psychiatric medications found in home of Germanwings pilot Andreas Lubitz, who underwent 18 months of psychiatric 'treatment'
(NaturalNews) Just as Natural News publicly predicted in a widely-circulated article entitled Germanwings jetliner catastrophe: The first antidepressant drug-induced mass murder of the skies?, psychiatric drugs have now been located and identified by law enforcement authorities searching the home of the murder-suicide co-pilot.
* Related: Germanwings plane crash: ‘People all over the world will know my name,’ Andreas Lubitz told ex-girlfriend

U.S. News, Politics & Government

The U.S. Is Now Putting Bounties On The Heads of Hackers
Activist Post - Russian hacker Evgeniy Bogachev was indicted ten months ago in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on multiple federal charges relating to cyber criminal activity. The only problem is that the Department of Justice has no idea where he is. Since then, the DOJ has employed an age-old technique that they are hoping will entice someone to turn in the 31-year-old to US authorities. They have placed a hefty bounty on his head. The U.S. government is offering $3 million to anyone with information that leads to the apprehension of the Russian.

US General Recommends ''Shielding'' Terrorists In Syria
Brandon Turbeville - In what should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the Syrian crisis, the top US commander in the Middle East, General Lloyd Austin, has apparently recommended that the US military “shield” the new death squad terrorists being trained by the United States who are soon to be deployed across the country. Gen. Austin told Congress on Thursday that he was currently waiting on the White House's response to his recommendation.

IRS Scandal Deja Vu: Hillary Clinton's Email Server "Wiped Clean"
Zero Hedge - The key question is when said server formatting took place. This appears to have taken place after the first production request had come in, which means that Clinton may well be guilty of destruction of evidence. He said while it’s “not clear precisely when Secretary Clinton decided to permanently delete all emails from her server, it appears she made the decision after October 28, 2014, when the Department of State for the first time asked the Secretary to return her public record to the Department.”
* Related: Republicans Blast Hillary: "Not Even Nixon Destroyed The Tapes"

Video Shows Troops Training to Intern Citizens in Fort Lauderdale
Paul Joseph Watson - Martial law-style drill caught on camera. Footage out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida shot earlier this week shows military and law enforcement practicing the internment of citizens during martial-law style training. The clip shows armed troops arresting role players on the street before a column of prisoners are marched towards a mock internment facility. Black Hawk choppers are also seen whizzing between buildings.

Federal Judge Rules Municipal Police Can Never Be Considered Soldiers
The New American - The judge found that the police officers who took over Mitchell's home were not soldiers and that the Third Amendment was written to protect individuals from "military intrusion into a private home."... While Gordon may have been correct in this ruling, his language is so broad that it may actually set a dangerous precedent. As Ilya Somin explained in the Washington Post: "The reasoning is very plausible and quite possibly correct. But it may too readily conclude that 'municipal police' can never be considered soldiers for purposes of the Amendment."

Veteran News

Did US Nerve Gas Poison Our Own Troops In First Gulf War?
Ben Swann - More than 200,000 of the 700,000 U.S. troops sent to Iraq and Kuwait during the Gulf War were hit by nerve gas, a fact the Department of Defense continues to deny and cover up. But the effects of the nerve gas are undeniable, Newsweek reports. Troops who were nearest the nerve gas are suffering at non-trivial rates which seemingly can’t be chalked up to randomness. A clear pattern is emerging. Medical experts are recording cancer rates at two or three times above average for the exposed troop population.

Economy & Business

Santelli Stunned As Janet Yellen Admits "Cash Is Not A Store Of Value"
Zero Hedge - Intended warning or unintended slip? After Alan Greenspan's confessional admission that "Gold is a currency. It is still, by all evidence, a premier currency. No fiat currency, including the dollar, can match it," we found it remarkable that during the Q&A after her speech today that Janet Yellen, when asked about negative rates, admitted that "cash in not a very convenient store of value," seemingly hinting at Bernanke's helicopter and that there will be no deflation in The US ever... Rick Santelli then sums it all up perfectly... "deflation is clearly the boogeyman... and the only thing that will save the middle class."

Pew Researcher: Rate of Illegal Immigrant Males In Workforce 12 Percent Higher Than U.S.-Born Males
Breitbart - An illegal immigrant male residing in the United States is more likely to be gainfully employed than a male who is a legal immigrant or U.S.-born citizen, a senior demographer at the Pew Research Center think tank told lawmakers.

Energy & Environment

"Electric Cars Are Doing More Harm Than Good" Professor Warns
Zero Hedge - "An electric car does not make you green... You’re better off filling up at the pump," if you live in Canada. According to a new study by professor Chris Kennedy, even if every driver in Canada made the switch - from gas to electric - the total emissions might not actually go down... since in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia, electric cars generate more carbon pollution over their lifetimes than gas-powered cars.

Science & Technology

Blatant Fraud Discredits 43 Major Scientific Studies
Vocative - Some scientific researchers are rigging the peer review process to speed up publication and defraud the scientific community. This week, BioMed Central officially retracted 43 papers published in its family of nearly 300 journals, covering topics from prostate cancer diagnostics to repairing broken ankles.

AT&T’s plan to watch your Web browsing—and what you can do about it
Ars Technica - Want to opt out? It could cost up to $744 extra per year. If you have AT&T’s gigabit Internet service and wonder why it seems so affordable, here's the reason—AT&T is boosting profits by rerouting all your Web browsing to an in-house traffic scanning platform, analyzing your Internet habits, then using the results to deliver personalized ads to the websites you visit, e-mail to your inbox, and junk mail to your front door.

Health

A Glut of Texas ‘Pro-Vax’ Bills Threaten Vaccination Exemptions
Breitbart - Pro-vaccination legislative fever is sweeping the nation faster than the recent measles and whooping cough outbreaks combined. Texas is no exception. A glut of proposed mandatory inoculation bills are moving through the 84th Legislative session. These are bills that would threaten existing vaccination exemptions.

Scientists in Canada Being Censored from Covering Dangers of Aluminum in Vaccines
Health Impact News - The U.S. Government has a serious conflict of interest when it comes to discussing vaccine safety, as they are the largest purchaser of vaccines in the U.S. The CDC alone purchases over $4 billion in vaccines every year. Outside the U.S. the largest purchaser of vaccines is the United Nations, primarily through UNICEF, and the World Health Organization (WHO), funded primarily by pharmaceutical companies, is the Government body approving the vaccines to be purchased and distributed. Negative news regarding vaccine safety is, therefore, vigorously opposed.

Pet News

9 Drugs That Top the List of Dangerous Human Medications for Pets
Dr. Becker - While most conscientious pet owners are aware of poisons and other potential hazards around the home, many don’t realize that several very common over-the-counter and prescription human medications can spell disaster for a beloved pet.



Friday - March 27, 2015 - Today in History:

1794 - The U.S. Congress authorized the creation of the U.S. Navy.
1802 - The Treaty of Amiens was signed ending the French Revolutionary War.
1836 - In Goliad, TX, about 350 Texan prisoners, including their commander James Fannin, were executed under orders from Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna. An estimated 30 Texans escaped execution.
1866 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson vetoed the civil rights bill, which later became the 14th amendment.
1884 - The first long-distance telephone call was made from Boston to New York.
1901 - Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo was captured by the U.S.
1912 - The first cherry blossom trees were planted in Washington, DC. The trees were a gift from Japan.
1933 - About 55,000 people staged a protest against Hitler in New York City.
1952 - The U.S. Eighth Army reached the 38th parallel in Korea, the original dividing line between the two Koreas.
1976 - Washington, DC, opened its subway system.
2004 - NASA successfully launched an unpiloted X-43A jet that hit Mach 7 (about 5,000 mph).
2009 - President Barack Obama launched a fresh effort to defeat al-Qaida terrorists in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, ordering in 4,000 more troops.

Your Thoughts?

Take a look at this bottle of cranberry juice that a Power Hour Team member drank last night. The empty bottle you can see the 'smudge' near the top, and when the bottle was full still, he took a picture of it and what do you think it looks like???

World News

Germanwings’ Andreas Lubitz underwent psychiatric treatment says reports
RT - Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, suspected of deliberately bringing down the plane with 150 people on board, suffered depression and underwent psychiatric treatment, German media report. Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, suspected of deliberately bringing down the plane with 150 people on board, suffered depression and underwent psychiatric treatment, German media report.
* Related: Police Claim to Find 'Significant Clue' at Home of Alps Plane Crash Suspect

Co-Pilot of Germanwings Airbus Was MUSLIM CONVERT …’Hero of Islamic State’?
Gateway Pundit - According to Michael Mannheimer, a writer for German PI-News, Germany now has its own 9/11, thanks to the convert to Islam, Andreas Lubitz. Translation from German: All evidence indicates that the copilot of Airbus machine in his six-months break during his training as a pilot in Germanwings, converted to Islam and subsequently either by the order of “radical”, ie. devout Muslims , or received the order from the book of terror, the Quran, on his own accord decided to carry out this mass murder. As a radical mosque in Bremen is in the center of the investigation, in which the convert was staying often, it can be assumed that he – as Mohammed Atta, in the attack against New York – received his instructions directly from the immediate vicinity of the mosque.

CIA Refuses to Share Updated Intelligence on MH17 Crash - US Journalist
Sputnik News - The US Central Intelligence Agency will not release an updated assessment of the Malaysia MH17 flight crash because it would exonerate the Russian government from involvement, US journalist Robert Parry, known for helping expose the Iran-Contra affair, told Sputnik.

Greek bank deposits lowest in 10yrs as savers pull funds
RT - Deposits in Greek banks have declined by around €7.6 billon in February as customers started pulling out their money with fears growing the country may possibly exit the eurozone. Private and business deposits dropped to €140.5 billion in February, which is the lowest level in 10 years, data from the Bank of Greece showed Thursday, according to Financial Times. The withdrawals were lower than in January. About €20.4 billion was pulled out in the two months before Athens reached an agreement with the Eurogroup to extend its €172 billion bailout until June.
* Related: Ukraine's Life-Saving IMF Deal in Jeopardy Over $3bln Default to Russia

Major power outage throughout northern Holland (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
RT - Large areas of the Netherlands have been left without electricity. The north of the country has been mainly affected, with the Dutch electricity network operator saying the outage has been caused by a power grid overload. The capital Amsterdam has been hit, along with the area around Schiphol Airport. Twitter has reported that some hospitals in Amsterdam have been left without power, while the tram and metro networks are also not running in the capital. Thousands of people have been stuck on public transport because the doors will not open as they are controlled electronically.

US Warships in Red Sea Ready to Respond in Yemen - CENTCOM
Sputnik News - Two United States warships stationed in the Red Sea are ready to respond to the situation in Yemen as the US Department of Defense closely monitors the Houthi uprising in the country, US Central Command said on Thursday.

Yemen Ground Invasion By Saudi, Egyptian Troops Imminent
Zero Hedge - Moments ago AP reported that Egyptian military and security officials told The Associated Press that the military intervention will go further, with a ground assault into Yemen by Egyptian, Saudi and other forces, planned once airstrikes have weakened the capabilities of the rebels. "The assault will be by ground from Saudi Arabia and by landings on Yemen's Red and Arabian Sea coasts. The aim is not to occupy Yemen but to weaken the Houthis and their allies until they enter negotiations for power-sharing, the officials said."

The World's Greatest Oil Chokepoints, And Why Yemen Matters
Zero Hedge - About half the world's oil production is moved by tankers on fixed maritime routes, according to Reuters. The blockage of a chokepoint, even temporarily, can lead to substantial increases in total energy costs and thus, these checkpoints are crucial to global energy security. While Hormuz remains the largest chokepoint (and along with Bab el-Mandeb explains why Yemen matters so much), Malacca (as we noted previously) is quickly becoming another area of potential problems.

Baghdad Troops Take Lead in Fight to Take Back Tikrit from ISIL - CENTCOM
Sputnik News - CENTCOM Commander General Lloyd Austin said Shia militia fighters “have pulled back from that area” and 4,000 Iraqi army and police forces are leading “clearing operations” in Tikrit. Austin confirmed that the Iraqi government will be in charge of all forces in the assault, a US condition for airstrikes against the terror group there. It marks a reassertion of US influence in the offensive, the AFP reported. Washington has been dismayed by the influence it says Iran has had in the operation, citing Tehran’s supply of advice and artillery to the Shia militias.

Russia warns NATO drills a 'problem' as US attack planes buzz Poland
RT - Four US A-10 Thunderbolt II attack planes are taking part in war games in Poland, as the nation expects about 10,000 NATO forces at drills this year. Moscow says the military build-up at Russia’s borders will have a negative long-term impact.... The military exercises are supposed to come as a part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which aims at “reassuring NATO allies and partners of America's dedication to enduring peace and stability in the region” following the recent developments in Ukraine.

Greece gets extra $1.1bn funding from ECB, has to prove trust
RT - The European Central Bank has increased the emergency funds available to Greek lenders by $1.1 billion, in an attempt to keep Greece in the eurozone. But, euroarea officials have told Greece they have zero trust in its ability to deliver effective policy. The European Central Bank on Wednesday increased the amount of money Greek banks can borrow under its emergency lending program to $77.8 billion, Bloomberg reported. The increase is the biggest this month since lenders lost access to normal ECB funding lines in February. The EU is currently holding back crucial financial aid as the European Commission has made $2 billion of unused funds available to Greece to help the country avert a cash crunch.

South Korea says to seek membership in China-backed AIIB
(Reuters) - South Korea said on Thursday it has decided to seek to be a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), another key U.S. ally joining the China-led institution despite Washington's misgivings.

Why Is Russia Building Massive Underground Bomb Shelters?
Zero Hedge - Did you know that the Russians have a massive underground complex in the Ural mountains that has been estimated to be approximately 400 square miles in size? In other words, it is roughly as big as the area inside the Washington D.C. beltway. Back in the 1990s, the Clinton administration was deeply concerned about the construction of this enormous complex deep inside Yamantau mountain, but they could never seem to get any straight answers from the Russians. The command center for this complex is rumored to be 3,000 feet directly straight down from the summit of this giant rock quartz mountain.

Germanwings A320 plane crash: 'Explosion and smoke' before Airbus plunged into French Alps
IBTimes - A helicopter pilot in the French Air Force based in Orange, 30 minutes away from the site of the crash, told IBTimes UK witnesses in the crash investigation told him "they had heard an explosion and seen smoke". While the French authorities have not confirmed these accounts, the pilot confirms the French Air Force has received a number of corroborating witness testimonies. The pilot also confirmed that debris was found upstream from the crash site - which he said confirmed the fact that the piece of fuselage had "been detached from the aircraft before impact".

U.S. News, Politics & Government

US proposes to let Iran operate fortified nuclear site says reports
RT - Washington is considering letting Iran operate hundreds of centrifuges at a formerly secret bunker, in exchange for limiting research at other sites, US officials taking part in the nuclear talks in Geneva told AP. Instead of uranium, any centrifuges permitted at the Fordo facility would work on isotopes used in medicine, science or industry, the officials said. In return, Iran would scale back the number of centrifuges it currently operates at the Natanz facility, and accept inspections and other restrictions.

9/11 Commission Report Instructs FBI to Step Up Fake Terror Plots
Kurt Nimmo - Report appears as agency visits Capitol Hill to defend an $8.48 billion budget request. On Wednesday the FBI released a final report to the 9/11 Review Commission. “I am pleased the Review Commission recognized the significant progress we have made to build a threat-based, intelligence-driven law enforcement and national security organization,” said FBI Director James B. Comey.

DEA agents had 'sex parties' with prostitutes, watchdog says
Politico - Agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration reportedly had “sex parties” with prostitutes hired by drug cartels in Colombia, according to a new inspector general report released by the Justice Department on Thursday. In addition, Colombian police officers allegedly provided “protection for the DEA agents’ weapons and property during the parties,” the report states. Ten DEA agents later admitted attending the parties, and some of the agents received suspensions of two to 10 days.

Topeka Police Implement New Policy: When a Cop Stops You, Hands Must Go Up
The Free Thought Project - Drivers as well as their passengers in Topeka Kansas will soon be subject to a new policy requiring everyone to put their hands up during police stops.... However, the implications regarding this practice are horrid, and many residents are up in arms about being forced to be up in arms.... First of all, this “policy” was not approved by the taxpayers. No citizens got to vote on its implementation, and it is going to be enforced with potentially deadly force. Secondly, it treats ALL parties stopped by police as criminals.

33 Strange Facts About America That Most Americans Would Be Shocked To Learn
Economic Collapse - This article includes some weird facts, some fun facts, but also some very troubling facts. It has been said that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, and hopefully as people enjoy reading the fun facts in this article they will also take note of the more serious facts. If we are ever going to change course as a nation, we need to come to grips with just how far we have fallen. The following are 33 strange facts about America that most Americans would be shocked to learn…

Veteran News

Veterans Hurt by Chemical Weapons in Iraq Get Apology
NY Times - The under secretary of the Army on Wednesday apologized for the military’s treatment of American service members exposed to chemical weapons in Iraq, and he announced new steps to provide medical support to those with lingering health effects and to recognize veterans who had been denied awards. Under Secretary Brad R. Carson acknowledged that the military had not followed its own policies for caring for troops exposed to old and abandoned chemical munitions that had been scattered around Iraq, and he vowed improvement.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

WHO Glyphosate Report Ends Thirty Year Cancer Cover Up
Sustainable Pulse - On February 11, 1985 the carcinogenic potential of glyphosate was first considered by an EPA panel, called the Toxicology Branch Ad Hoc Committee. The Committee, in a consensus review dated March 4, 1985, then classified glyphosate as a Class C Carcinogen. A Class C Carcinogen has ”Suggestive evidence of carcinogenic potential” according to the EPA. This Class C classification was changed by the EPA six years later to a Class E category which suggests “evidence of non-carcinogenicity for humans”. Mysteriously this change in glyphosate’s classification occurred during the same period that Monsanto was developing its first Roundup-Ready (glyphosate-resistant) GM Crops.
* Related: 11 Quick Reasons to Dislike DuPont as Much as Monsanto

Learn how to make all-natural acorn flour for self-reliance
(NaturalNews) If you're ready to enjoy a flavorful, healthy flour that's a pleasant blend of sweet and nutty, then you'll want to try making acorn flour. It's an easy, affordable habit that not only makes meals more flavorful, but is also one that puts you on the fast track toward self-reliance. And these days, just about everyone knows that self-reliance is essential, especially as society stands on the brink of collapse.

Health

10 of The Most Functional Foods In The World Which Destroy Cancer Cells
Dave Mihalovic - Many specific proteins, enzymes and coding within our immune system may be activated to kill cancer cells. There is no such thing as a cancer cell that cannot be defeated by the human immune system. The difference between cancers that grow and those that don't are what we put in our bodies to prohibit their growth. Proteins can be rendered ineffective if cells experience uncontrolled growth though damage or mutations to DNA or if toxins through food and chemical pollution override the immune system's natural function.

Ginger: The Enemy of Type 2 Diabetes
Green Med Info - Ginger has been studied to have value in over 150 health conditions with type 2 diabetes top of the list. With anti-diabetic drugs linked to increased cardiovascular mortality, natural alternatives are needed now more than ever.... there are over 2100 published studies on the medicinal properties of ginger in the scientific literature, and the Greenmedinfo database contains evidence that it has value in over 170 different health conditions, and has over 50 different beneficial physiological effects

Pet News

Couple Back to Court in Texas for ‘Animal Crush Videos’
Breitbart - A Houston couple will, once again, face federal trial for making and distributing “animal crush videos” depicting the torture and killing of animals after the Supreme Court of the United States declined to accept appellate review. Federal District Court Judge Sim Lake previously dismissed the charges against Ashley Nichole Richards and Brent Justice -- calling the videos protected free speech. Related: Worldwide campaign against animal crush videos at StopCrush.org

MP advocates tougher penalties for animal cruelty
RT - A Russian lawmaker has drafted a bill toughening the punishment for cruelty to animals, citing requests from concerned citizens and groups and also experts’ claims that those who are cruel to animals can become dangerous to people. Oleg Lebedev of the Communist Party proposes an increase in the minimum punishment for cruel treatment of animals (a criminal offense in Russia) from the current fine of 80,000 rubles (about US$1300) or the convict’s income over a six-month period up to 160,000 rubles ($2600) or one year’s income. The maximum punishment is increased from six months to one year of detention.



Thursday - March 26, 2015 - Today in History:


1804 - The U.S. Congress ordered the removal of Indians east of the Mississippi to Louisiana.
1804 - The Louisiana Purchase was divided into the District of Louisiana and the Territory of Orleans.
1885 - Eastman Kodak (Eastman Dry Plate and Film Co.) produced the first commercial motion picture film in Rochester, NY.
1910 - The U.S. Congress passed an amendment to the 1907 Immigration Act that barred criminals, paupers, anarchists and carriers of disease from settling in the U.S.
1945 - The battle of Iwo Jima ended.
1951 - The U.S. Air Force flag was approved. The flag included the coat of arms, 13 white stars and the Air Force seal on a blue background.
1953 - Dr. Jonas Salk announced a new vaccine that would prevent poliomyelitis.
1982 - Ground breaking ceremonies were held in Washington, DC, for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1983 - The U.S. performed a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site.
1989 - The first free elections took place in the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin was elected.
1998 - In the U.S., the Federal government endorses new HIV test that yields instant results.
1998 - Unisys Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. pay a $3.15 million fine for selling spare parts at inflated prices to the U.S. federal government.
1999 - In Michigan, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder for giving a terminally ill man a lethal injection and putting it all on videotape on September 17, 1998 for "60 Minutes."
2007 - The design for the "Forever Stamp" was unveiled by the U.S. Postal Service.

World News

Oil surges 6% on Saudi airstrikes in Yemen
RT - Brent and WTI added more than 4 percent after Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a military operation in Yemen against Shiite Houthi rebels. Saudi Arabia is the biggest oil supplier in the region, and southern Yemen is home to many LNG hubs. WTI shot up more than 6.43 percent to $52.38 per barrel, and Brent climbed to $59.71, a 59.72 percent increase at 11:00 am Moscow time. Saudi Arabia and nine allied countries began airstrikes at 11 pm GMT, deploying a total of 70 fighter jets.

Yemen rebels gained access to secret US files – report
RT - Houthi Shiite rebels obtained secret Yemeni intelligence documents with details about US-backed counter-terrorism operations, including the names and locations of informants, the Los Angeles Times reported citing American officials. The documents were stolen when Houthi fighters took over the office of Yemen’s National Security Bureau in the country's capital Sanaa, which was closely cooperating with the CIA on various anti-terror missions. US officials claim that some files were given to Iranian advisers.

Leaders of 16 Nations Expected at China BFA Annual Conference
Sputnik News - The 2015 Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual conference opening ceremony will be attended by 16 world leaders, including event host Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to the forum website. The organizers expect more than 2,000 delegates from political, business, academic and media circles to attend the event. Among them will be 80 officials and 65 heads of Fortune 500 companies.

US Starts Bombing ISIL-Held Tikrit After Iraqi Assault Stalls
Sputnik News - The US-led coalition began airstrikes in support of Iraqi operations against Islamic State fighters in the city of Tikrit, the Associated Press reported. A US official says the airstrikes began after the Iraqi government requested US help. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the American attacks had not yet been officially announced. An Associated Press reporter in Tikrit reported hearing warplanes overhead late Wednesday, followed by multiple explosions.

Another Middle East War Breaks Out: US-Supported Saudi Arabia Begins Bombing Yemen, Tanks Cross Border
Zero Hedge - Earlier today we reported that, on very short notice, Saudi Arabia had moved heavy military equipment including artillery to areas near its border with Yemen, "raising the risk that the Middle East’s top oil power will be drawn into the worsening Yemeni conflict." In other words, Saudi Arabia was preparing for war. Moments ago all these warnings were borne out when Al-Arabiya reported that the latest middle-east war is now official after Saudi Arabia and Arab Gulf States had launched a bombing campaign against Yemen.

US Hegemony, Dollar Dominance Are Officially Dead As China Scores Overwhelming Victory In Bank Battle
Zero Hedge - The China-led development bank essentially marks an epochal shift away from traditionally US-dominated multinational institutions like the IMF and the ADB. Meanwhile, it also represents an implicit attempt by the Chinese to usher in a kind of sino-Monroe Doctrine. The more isolated the US becomes as it relates to the new venture, the more transparent its motives seem. This was never about “standards” (the original excuse for Washington’s opposition to the bank), but rather about stifling Chinese ambition. "America seems to be confirming China’s darkest fears: it has adopted a policy of containment that is wrong in principle and has failed in practice," notes The Economist.

Trans-Pacific Partnership Seen as Door for Foreign Corporate Suits Against U.S. to Be Heard in Secret World Bank Tribunals
NY Times - An ambitious 12-nation trade accord pushed by President Obama would allow foreign corporations to sue the United States government for actions that undermine their investment “expectations” and hurts their business, according to a classified document. The Trans-Pacific Partnership — a cornerstone of Mr. Obama’s remaining economic agenda — would grant broad powers to multinational companies operating in North America, South America and Asia. Under the accord, still under negotiation but nearing completion, companies and investors would be empowered to challenge regulations, rules, government actions and court rulings — federal, state or local — before tribunals organized under the World Bank or the United Nations.

Germanwings Pilot Was Locked Out of Cockpit Before Crash in France
NY Times - As officials struggled Wednesday to explain why a jet with 150 people on board crashed in relatively clear skies, an investigator said evidence from a cockpit voice recorder indicated one pilot left the cockpit before the plane’s descent and was unable to get back in. A senior military official involved in the investigation described "very smooth, very cool" conversation between the pilots during the early part of the flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf. Then the audio indicated that one of the pilots left the cockpit and could not re-enter.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Obama Admin Declassifies Top-Secret Doc Revealing Israel’s Nuclear Secrets
Breitbart - The Pentagon has declassified a document that was once labeled “top-secret,” which goes into sophisticated detail about Israel’s nuclear weapons program. The document was released quietly just prior to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s March 3 speech to a joint session of Congress.

VIDEO: Clinton hit with racketeering lawsuit over emails
The Hill - Larry Klayman, the founder of Freedom Watch, launched dozens of lawsuits against former President Bill Clinton’s administration. The conservative group Freedom Watch has filed a racketeering lawsuit against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that accuses her of failing to produce documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

ISIS Releases City ‘Kill List': Most Towns Included Make Sense to No One
Daily Sheeple - In an ongoing bid to scare the public with propaganda direct from our government’s own creation, it is being publicized in the mainstream media that the Pentagon has responded to what has been dubbed ISIS’s “kill list.”... Here’s the list of cities by state (via News Channel 10 out of Amarillo, Texas)...

Crackdown on Medicare Fraud Brought back $3.3 Billion in One Year
AllGov - Spearheaded by Attorney General Eric Holder and then-Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the HEAT program ramped up an 18-year effort by their two departments to battle Medicare fraud. Of the $3.3 billion recovered, $1.9 billion was funneled back into the Medicare Trust Fund, $1.2 billion went to the U.S. Treasury, and $155 million to other agencies. Whistleblowers collected $370 million of the funds for helping expose Medicare fraud.

New Bill Would Have Teachers Diagnose Psychological Issues in Children and Report them to Police
The Free Thought Project -Texas State Representative Jason Villalba (R-Dallas) is once again in the spotlight after submitting yet another Orwellian proposal, H.B. 985.... Now with H.B. 985, Villalba intends to give school officials the authority to force psychological screenings of students that teachers and staff diagnose as having mental health issues. Once the process is set in motion by school officials, parents would be forced to take their child to a mental health professional within 30 days, under threat of suspension of the child from school.

Economy & Business

Madness Coming To Gold Market: “There Are Thirty to Fifty Owners For Each Ounce of Gold That’s Out There”
Mac Slavo - In London the price is based two factors: 1) the “futures” market in New York. This is where people buy a contract for future gold. Gold that may or may not exist today but they are willing to purchase today and take “delivery” in the future. 2) The other factor is a very small group of banksters sitting around and determining what the price should be.... The banks operating in these paper markets do so with gold that they don’t own. They trade in paper receipts. The reason that’s a problem is that there are anywhere from thirty to fifty “owners” for every ounce of gold out there.

Federal Employees Collectively Owe Over $3.5 Billion in Taxes
Ian Smith - Out of this total number, $1,141,622,621 is owed by civilian employees, $602,698,872 by retired civilian employees, and the remainder by active and retired military members.... Chaffetz is also the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman, and he will be holding markup hearings for several bills this week, one of which is the Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act of 2015 (S 303), a bill which would make federal employees with seriously delinquent tax debt ineligible to receive bonuses.

RadioShack puts customer personal data up for sale in bankruptcy auction
PCWorld - For years, RadioShack made a habit of collecting customers’ contact information at checkout. Now, the bankrupt retailer is putting that data on the auction block. A list of RadioShack assets for sale includes more than 65 million customer names and physical addresses, and 13 million email addresses. Bloomberg reports that the asset sale may include phone numbers and information on shopping habits as well.

The Price Of Ground Beef Has DOUBLED Since The Last Financial Crisis
Economic Collapse - Since the depths of the last recession, the price of ground beef in the United States has doubled. Has your paycheck doubled since then? Even though the Federal Reserve insists that we are in a “low inflation” environment, the government’s own numbers show that the price of ground beef has been on an unprecedented run over the past six years. In early 2009, the average price of a pound of ground beef was hovering near 2 dollars. In February, it hit a brand new all-time record high of $4.238 per pound.

Energy & Environment

Fracking moratorium, strict liability standards bills pass in Maryland
RT - Both chambers of the Maryland legislature passed bills that would rein in hydraulic fracturing in the state. The House of Delegates passed a three-year moratorium on fracking, while the Senate approved strict liability standards for oil and gas drillers. The House voted 93-45, a two-thirds majority that fell largely along party lines, for the temporary ban so that a committee can study the implications for public health and tourism.

Science & Technology

Google's open door: Firm's execs average 1 meeting a week at White House says report
RT - Visitor logs for the executive mansion and Obama administration emails obtained by the Wall Street Journal suggest that employees of the search engine giant sat down with the president’s team roughly 230 times during the last six years, including a slew of meetings with White House and Federal Trade Commission officials during the FTC’s antitrust investigation of Google that concluded in January 2013.... Reports of the burgeoning “revolving door” between Silicon Valley and Washington are legion: ex-execs from Google and Twitter were named the nation’s chief technology officer and deputy CTO, respectively, late last year, and just this week Google alumni Jason Goldman was named the White House’s new chief digital officer.

Facebook Reveals its Master Plan – Control All News Flow
Michael Krieger - The new proposal by Facebook carries another risk for publishers: the loss of valuable consumer data. When readers click on an article, an array of tracking tools allow the host site to collect valuable information on who they are, how often they visit and what else they have done on the web.

Mall security is using facial recognition to spy on everyone
MassPrivateI - Documents obtained by The Intercept proves mall security guards are using fake Facebook accounts to monitor activists, befriend them, and obtain their personal information and photographs without their knowledge. Mall of America enters EVERY visitor into Homeland Security terror reports.

Apple Patents ‘Tracking People’ in Real Time
Sputnik News - In a move gone largely unnoticed outside the tech world, the US Patent and Trademark Office granted a patent to telecommunications giant Apple that would make it easy to see what your friends and family are up to – even minute by minute if you like.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

Small farmers will soon have to prove their crops are non-GMO to be able to make that claim
Chicago Tribune - Inspired by the popular "USDA organic" label, House Republicans are proposing a new government certification for foods free of genetically modified ingredients. The idea is part of an attempt to block mandatory labeling of foods that include genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. The certification would be voluntary, says Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., who is including the idea in legislation he plans to introduce Wednesday.

Health

VACCINE INJURY: First the Gut, Then the Brain
Green Med Info - When we think about vaccine injuries such as autism and epilepsy, we generally consider a direct assault on the brain. But the reality may be far different where injury begins in the gut, leading to brain damage. This article will explore potential mechanisms of gut-brain injuries by vaccination.

New GMO Wine Makes Promises Of No More Hangovers, But At What Cost?
Natasha Longo - Scientists at the University of Illinois have engineered a genetically modified yeast to enhance fermentation and eliminate byproducts that cause hangovers. The question is, how will altering natural yeast in fermentation processes affect the chemical constituents in wine once metabolized? Food scientists have been looking to incorporate additives consisting of a series of chelation compounds to wine to prevent it from looking, smelling and tasting funky after oxidation. The problem is, many of them are toxic to living cells. A new method of modifying yeast may bypass additives altogether.



Wednesday - March 25, 2015 - Today in History:

1776 - The Continental Congress authorized a medal for General George Washington.
1813 - The frigate USS Essex flew the first U.S. flag in battle in the Pacific.
1865 - During the American Civil War, Confederate forces captured Fort Stedman in Virginia.
1879 - Japan invaded the kingdom of Liuqiu (Ryukyu) Islands, formerly a vassal of China.
1905 - Rebel battle flags that were captured during the American Civil War were returned to the South.
1940 - The U.S. agreed to give Britain and France access to all American warplanes.
1947 - John D. Rockefeller III presented a check for $8.5 million to the United Nations for the purchase of land for the site of the U.N. center.
1953 - The USS Missouri fired on targets at Kojo, North Korea.
1954 - RCA manufactured its first color TV set and began mass production.
1960 - A guided missile was launched from a nuclear powered submarine for the first time.
1965 - Martin Luther King Jr. led a group of 25,000 to the state capital in Montgomery, AL.
1986 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan ordered emergency aid for the Honduran army. U.S. helicopters took Honduran troops to the Nicaraguan border.
1991 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched a major counter-offensive to recapture key towns from Kurds in northern Iraq.
1994 - United States troops completed their withdrawal from Somalia.
1996 - An 81-day standoff by the antigovernment Freemen began at a ranch near Jordan, MT.
1998 - A cancer patient was the first known to die under Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law.
2004 - The U.S. Senate voted (61-38) on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (H.R. 1997) to make it a separate crime to harm a fetus during the commission of a violent federal crime.

World News

Goal of Promoting 'Democracy' in Ukraine? US Wants to Exploit Its Resources
Sputnik News - When the United States speaks about promoting democracy and human rights, Washington is in fact pursuing its economic interests and rights to natural resources, with Ukraine being no exception, German MP Sahra Wagenknecht told Sputnik in an exclusive interview. "It is common knowledge that a son of US Vice President Joe Biden serves on the board of directors of Ukraine's gas producer," the deputy chair of Germany's Left Party said.

Tear gas, rubber bullets as police disperse Canadian students’ anti-austerity rally
RT - Canadian police used tear gas and reportedly fired rubber bullets and sound bombs at hundreds of students protesting austerity measures at an anti-capitalist rally in Montreal. Thousands took to the streets on Tuesday to protest sweeping education cuts.

Taiwan Seizes Japanese Food From Radiation Affected Areas
Sputnik News - The Food and Drug Administration found 283 items of Japanese food with counterfeit labels, in Chinese language, in local supermarkets in early February. However, the government did not order the removal until March 19, the German news agency dpa reported on Wednesday. The food products — including instant noodles, black tea, coffee and sweets — were falsely covered with stickers purporting to show manufacturing in Tokyo, Osaka, Hokkaido and even parts of the United States, state-run Central News Agency said.

Ukraine Continues to Spend Billions on Arms Despite Debt Crisis
Sputnik News - According to forecasts of financial analysts, Ukraine is unlikely to repay Russia its debt of $ 3 billion, while at the same time it is planning to spend $ 3.8 billion on arms purchases, “Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten” reports. Since the beginning of the crisis, Ukraine has received several loans from the IMF and the EU, but the financial situation in the country remains fragile. The country is to repay $ 15 billion debt over the next four years, including the debt for Russia that is to be discharged by December 2015.

US accuses Israel of spying on nuclear talks with Iran
Guardian - The US has accused Israel of spying on international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme and using the intelligence gathered to persuade Congress to undermine the talks, according to a report on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal cited senior administration officials as saying the Israeli espionage operation began soon after the US opened up a secret channel of communications with Tehran in 2012, aimed at resolving the decade-long standoff over Iran’s nuclear aspirations.

America and Iran 'taking part in joint military operations in Iraq'
The Telegraph - The United States is taking part in joint military operations with Iran, admitting it is providing aerial surveillance over the current battle for Tikrit. The assault on Isil-held Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s home town in Iraq, has stalled in recent days after initial success.

Greece pledges full list of reforms within the week
The Guardian - Greece has pledged to pull together a comprehensive list of reforms by the start of next week, in an attempt to unlock fresh funds before Athens runs out of cash in April. Government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis said on Tuesday that the programme demanded by Greece’s increasingly impatient creditors would be finished within days.

Germanwings plane black box found as mystery surrounds Alps crash
The Guardian - French air investigators are urgently examining a black box cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from a Germanwings Airbus A-320 to try to solve the mystery of why the aircraft crashed into a mountain in the southern Alps, killing all 150 people on board. Investigators are puzzled as to why the crew did not send out a mayday or distress signal as flight U49525 rapidly lost altitude for eight minutes, or why the pilot did not change course to avoid smashing into a rocky ravine at around 430mph (700kmh).

U.S. News, Politics & Government

US Lawmakers Ask to Boost Funding for US-Israel Missile Defense Systems
Sputnik News - US Congressman Peter Roskam and Congresswoman Grace Meng explained that the funding levels would address the evolving threats posed by Israeli adversaries, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran as well as yield economic, technological and military benefits to the United States.... "In a bipartisan letter to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, Republicans Roskam and Meng requested $41.4 million in funding for the Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system, $286.9 million for the David's Sling Weapon System, and $146.9 million for the Arrow Weapon System," the statement published on Tuesday read.

House Revives Bill To Completely Repeal The Patriot Act, Dismantle NSA Spying
Daily Caller - Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan and Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie announced in a press release their intention to reintroduce the Surveillance State Repeal Act — a bill first introduced following the Snowden leaks in 2013 that would completely repeal the Patriot Act and the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, as well as introduce reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Obama Announces No Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2015
Common Dreams - Under the guise of a transfer of power, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's and U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday new "flexibility" in the U.S. military's drawdown plan in Afghanistan, scrapping previous pledges made to reduce troop levels by the end of the year. During the joint address, Obama said that none of the 9,8000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan will be withdrawn in 2015—despite his initial pledge to reduce troop levels to 5,500 during that time.

The Top 10 Companies and The People That Make Billions of Dollars From War
Daily Sheeple - In their article titled Companies Profiting the Most From War, Thomas C. Frohlich and Mark Lieberman listed the 10 companies profiting the most from war. To identify them, they examined the companies with the most arms sales based on information from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Still Not Ready? Pentagon Extends F-35 Software Flaws Testing
Sputnik News - Air Force Lieutenant General Chris Bodgan said software testing in December revealed problems with the jets’ ability to fuse data about threats on the ground when four F-35s were flying at once. As a result, the aircraft had trouble identifying the number of targets.... The Marine Corps, however, still plans to declare its version of the F-35, which can take off and land vertically like a helicopter, ready for initial combat use in July.... The defense contractor’s [Lockheed-Martin] sales are forecasted to fall slightly this year from $45.4 billion in 2014, with 17% derived from the F-35, according to a Wall Street journal report.

More States Added to ‘Jade Helm’ Military Exercise
Adan Salazar & Mikael Thalen - The US military has quietly added more states to its eight-week Jade Helm joint training drill, originally designated to take place in seven southwestern states. Speaking of the exercise at the Brazos County Commissioners Court in Texas last month, Jade Helm Operations Planner and retired Green Beret Thomas Mead told an audience that the drill, which will run from July 15 to September 15, will now include the states Mississippi and Florida.

Why is this N.C. Senator Comparing Religious Vaccine Exemptions to the Taliban?
Health Impact News - Three North Carolina State Senators recently introduced a bill to repeal the state’s religious exemptions to vaccines. Apparently Senator Jeff Tarte believes that a “religious belief” can only be something officially sanctioned by a religious organization, and not a personal belief between an individual and their Creator, because Mr. Tarte stated that they researched religious organizations’ beliefs on vaccines in writing their bill.... But where it gets really interesting is when Mr. Tarte reveals which religious groups they found in their research that were “officially” opposed to vaccines: “Christian Scientists” and “the Taliban.”

Friend of Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Pleads Guilty to Reduced Charge
Sputnik News - Khairullozhon Matanov, a 23-year-old cab driver and friend to the Tsarnaev brothers, appeared in federal court Tuesday to plead guilty to the crime of lying to the FBI. According to a deal with prosecutors, the charge carries a 30-month sentence minus time served. He will be sentenced in June. Had Matanov gone to court, there is enough evidence to convict him for a possible 20-year sentence.

Judge Nap on New Clinton Revelations: 'She Knew What She Was Saying Was Untrue' (Video)
Fox News Insider - There are new revelations in the email controversy surrounding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with the New York Times reporting that Clinton emailed with her top aides on their personal accounts.

Wisconsin Cops Will Now Forcibly Take DNA For ALL Misdemeanors
Steve Watson - In an precedent setting move, beginning April, cops in Wisconsin will not only take DNA samples from felons, but will collect and record samples for ALL criminal misdemeanor convictions. A local Fox affiliate carries the story, noting that the number of DNA samples collected each year is set to increase to an estimated 60,000. Currently 10,000-12,000 samples per year are taken from felons.

Hummelstown police officer charged with homicide
ABC News - A Hummelstown police officer has been charged with criminal homicide in the fatal shooting of a South Hanover Township man last month. Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico said following a state police investigation, he concluded 36-year-old Lisa Mearkle was not justified in using deadly force when she shot 59-year-old David Kassick.... Mearkle is a 14-year veteran of the Hummelstown Police Department. She was arraigned before District Judge Lowell Witmer and initially sent to Dauphin County Prison without bail, but was released after bail was modified to $250,000. A preliminary hearing is scheduled April 20.

Economy & Business

Thousands Of Layoffs Coming After Buffett Merges Heinz With Kraft, Creating 5th Largest Food Company In The World
Zero Hedge - Another day, another mega-M&A deal taking advantage of abnormally low bond rates, this time however not involving biotechs or a specialty pharma seeking to purchase a debt-free balance sheet, but one involving the Oracle of Omaha himself, and his Heinz investment, which will merge with Kraft Foods whose market cap was over $40 billion this morning on the news of the merger, and create the third largest food and beverage company in the US, and 5th largest in the world. And while the resulting company will certainly be a food giant, here is the rationale behind the deal and the punchline for American workers: "significant synergy opportunities." Translation: thousands of layoffs imminent.

Energy & Environment

Smart Meter Information Consumers Should Know
Activist Post - Over the course of a year that my electric power company in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has been installing AMI Smart Meters on homes in my area, I have been able to keep one off my house by placing a “No Permission Granted to Install Smart Meter” sign on the meter along with a padlock on the meter latch. Early in February of 2015, I received what I perceived as a threatening letter to my health, safety, and well-being, that if I don’t give PECO permission to install a Smart Meter, my electric power will be turned off, and not because I’ve not paid my bill!

Science & Technology

Ford’s new car will force you to obey the speed limit
Engadget - Ford’s Intelligent Speed Limiter tech will first appear on the new Ford S-Max that’s launching in Europe that could just change the way that we drive. A camera mounted on the windshield scans the road signs on the sides of the highway and, when the vehicle enters a 20mph zone, the system reduces the top speed to match. Rather than controlling the speed with automatic braking, the car limits its own velocity by adjusting the amount of fuel being pushed to the engine.

Woman Imprisoned In Mental Hospital For 8 DAYS After Claiming Obama Follows Her On Twitter
Steve Watson - Turns Out POTUS actually DOES follow her. In a truly bizarre case, a woman was recently locked up in the psychiatric ward of a Long Island hospital, and forced to undergo medical procedures against her will for over a week, after she told police that The President follows her on Twitter.... When the ordeal was finally over, the hospital forced Brock to sign a statement saying she had lied... At no point did anyone, police or doctors, actually check her Twitter account to verify her claim.... She was also charged with a bill of $13,637.10 upon her release, all for being held against her will.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

New Study Shows Roundup Herbicide Causes Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria
Sustainable Pulse - While other substances such as aspirin have been shown to change bacteria’s tolerance to antibiotics herbicides have never been tested. The team at the University of Canterbury investigated what happens to species of disease-causing bacteria when they are exposed to common herbicides such as Roundup, Kamba and 2,4-D.... The effects found are relevant wherever people or animals are exposed to herbicides at the range of concentrations achieved where they are applied. This may include, for example, farm animals and pollinators in rural areas and potentially children and pets in urban areas. The effects were detectable only at herbicide concentrations that were above currently allowed residue levels on food.

Health

KOMU 8 viewers share reasoning behind vaccination opinions
KOMU 8 invited viewers to participate in a vaccination survey. In the first several weeks the survey was open, there were more than 500 responses, but after a prominent vaccine opponent promoted the survey, the number jumped to more than 1600. Initially, only one anti-vaccination person was willing to go on camera and share her opinion - Joyce Riley, Versailles native and host of the radio talk show "Power Hour". Riley said, "I have educated myself on vaccines to where I say I will never take another vaccine as long as I live." Riley told KOMU 8...
* Related: VIDEO: Joyce Riley interviewed by KOMU on the controversy about vaccinations

Beware of Organ Removal for "Cancer Prevention": Jolie's Precautionary Tale
Green Med Info - With Angelina Jolie's recent announcement that she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed because of both a BRCA 'gene defect' and a history of breast and ovarian cancer in her family, the idea that genes play a dominant role in determining biological destiny and cancer risk is proliferating in the mainstream media and popular consciousness uncontrollably like a cancer.
* Related: Why Angelina Jolie Should Leave Her Ovaries Alone

External Flaxseed Oil Treats Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Green Med Info - Carpal tunnel syndrome is considered mysterious to conventional medicine. Now we find proof that nature helps solve the riddle of the carpal tunnel by virtue of flaxseed oil - also referred to as linseed oil.



Tuesday - March 24, 2015 - Today in History:

1720 - In Paris, banking houses closed due to financial crisis.
1765 - Britain passed the Quartering Act that required the American colonies to house 10,000 British troops in public and private buildings.
1828 - The Philadelphia & Columbia Railway was authorized as the first state owned railway.
1868 - Metropolitan Life Insurance Company was formed.
1920 - The first U.S. coast guard air station was established at Morehead City, NC.
1934 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.
1938 - The U.S. asked that all powers help refugees fleeing from the Nazis.
1947 - The U.S. Congress proposed the limitation of the presidency to two terms.
1988 - Former national security aides Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter and businessmen Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim pled innocent to Iran-Contra charges.
1989 - The Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of oil in Alaska's Prince William Sound after it ran aground.
1989 - The U.S. decided to send humanitarian aid to the Contras.
1995 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a welfare reform package that made the most changes in social programs since the New Deal.
1998 - In Jonesboro, AR, two young boys open fire at students from woods near a school. Four students and a teacher were killed and 10 others were injured. The two boys were 11 and 13 years old cousins.
1998 - A former FBI agent said papers found in James Earl Ray's car supports a conspiracy theory in the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
2014 - It was announced that the U.S. and its allies would exclude Russia from the G8 meeting and boycott a planned summit in Sochi in response to Russia's takeover of Crimea.
2012 - Former Vice President Dick Cheney underwent a heart transplant at a Virginia hospital

World News

Israel, US ‘boycott’ UN session on Gaza conflict
RT - Israeli and American representatives were conspicuously absent from the UN Human Rights Council session on the Palestinian territories on Monday. The session aimed to look into the Gaza conflict which killed 2,200 people in 50 days in 2014.... Tel Aviv refused to comment as to why its representatives did not take part. The US, however, said that one of the points on the UN session agenda – concerning human rights violations against the Palestinians – lacked legitimacy.

Japan's Pacific Rim Job: Build 250-Mile Anti-Tsunami Wall To Create Jobs
Zero Hedge - AP reports the latest cunning plan from the Japanese is to build a Pacific-Rim-esque "massive, costly sea wall to fend off tsunamis." The $6.8 billion, 250-mile-long, 41-foot-high concrete barrier public works project is seen by some as a necessary evil, and by others as a jail... Perhaps The UN's head of Disaster Risk Reduction summed it up best - "There's a bit of an over-belief in technology as a solution."

US Heightens Military Presence in Gulf as Iran Nuclear Deal Approaches
Sputnik News - As the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 nations come to a head, the US begins Eagle Resolve, a massive military exercise in the Persian Gulf. With the support of regional allies, the US moved nearly 3,000 military personnel, as well as "air, land, sea, and special operations components," into the gulf on March 8. Taking place just off the coast of Kuwait, the exercise will continue through the end of the month, and is meant to improve the military’s response time should an incident occur in the region.

Fighting The "War on Terror" By Banning Cash
Zero Hedge - Taking advantage of public anxiety in the wake of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket, France has taken the first step. It seems the terrorists involved partially financed these attacks by cash, as well as by consumer loans and the sale of counterfeit goods… Despite the arrant absurdity of blaming cash and financial privacy for these crimes, French Finance Minister Michel Sapin brazenly stated that it was necessary to "fight against the use of cash and anonymity in the French economy." He then announced extreme and despotic measures to further restrict the use of cash by French residents and to spy on and pry into their financial affairs.

Director of Respiratory Protection System Company Warns ISIS Will Launch Chemical Attack in London’s Tube
Kurt Nimmo - U.S. has linked use of chlorine gas to al-Assad government in Syria. The managing director of a company that sells respiratory protection system technology says the Islamic State will likely conduct a chlorine gas attack at British sporting events or in the Tube, London’s underground public rapid transit system. “I am convinced that IS fighters are all being given training in chemical weapons and the British ones, who are likely to be more educated, will all be targeted in the hope they may return home,” said Colonel de Bretton-Gordon.

Sanctions vs. Profit: UK Gov't to Justify Arms Exports to Russia
Sputnik News - The UK government is due to respond to an inquiry by the parliamentary Committees on Arms Export Controls (CAEC) on the high figures of arms sales to Russia despite an embargo imposed in 2014 over the crisis in Ukraine, CAEC's media officer told Sputnik on Monday. On March 20, CAEC released an annual report scrutinizing UK arms exports and the policies of arms control. In particular, the report states that the country granted Standard Individual Export Licences (SIELs) worth more than 131.5 million pounds ($196 million) for arms exports to Russia.

Rising China arms exports threaten US influence worldwide – report
RT - Chinese-made advanced weapons systems flooding the international market over the next 10 years will cause instability, and make it a lot harder for the US to intervene in other countries, Foreign Policy magazine warned.... Chinese weapons systems are often much cheaper than those of competing exporters. And while they’re not better than Russian or US alternatives, they are often good enough,” the US magazine wrote.... Cheap Chinese and Indian weapons are also likely to “disrupt the global arms market,” leading to a drop in orders for the US, Russia and the EU, the expert said.

Children Suffer Genetic Damage from Pesticides in Argentina GM Soy Region
Sustainable Pulse - The study compared 50 children living in the town of Marcos Juárez (Córdoba) at different distances from pesticide-sprayed areas with 25 children from the city of Río Cuarto (Córdoba), who were considered not to be exposed to pesticides. Genetic damage in the group of exposed children in Marcos Juárez was 44% higher than in the unexposed children in Río Cuarto. The most commonly used pesticides in the region are glyphosate, cypermethrin, and chlorpyrifos.
* Related: WHO Declares that Glyphosate Herbicides Probably Cause Cancer

U.S. News, Politics & Government

US House urges Obama to send arms to Ukraine
RT - The US House has passed a resolution calling on President Barack Obama to send lethal weapons to Ukraine, despite the fragile truce in the eastern part of the country. The non-binding resolution was approved by an overwhelming majority of 348-48. Sending weapons to the Kiev government would not mean involvement in a new war for America, claimed US Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), a Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who sponsored the document. “The people of Ukraine are not looking for American troops," Engel said. "They are just looking for the weapons.”

US promises billions to fund Afghan military through 2017
RT - Officials have confirmed the US will continue to spend about $4 billion a year to fund Afghanistan’s military for the next two fiscal years. It is a sign of support for the government in Kabul, which Washington views as more cooperative than in the past. The pledge means continued US funding for Afghan security forces at the peak level of 352,000 troops through the end of fiscal year 2017, a financial commitment costing about $4 billion a year, news agencies quoted US officials following the day of talks with Afghan leadership at Camp David

“By Hook or By Crook”: Determined Obama Vows to Go Beyond Executive Actions to Rule
Mac Slavo - Controversially, President Obama announced in a speech that he was using the powers of the Executive Branch to shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation, to ban ammunition for AR-15s, ban the importation and sale of AK-47s and even to seize a broad range of assets including farms, industry, infrastructure and food during a declared emergency. He also used the power of his pen to delay implementation of his own pet project, Obamacare. Just last week, Obama issued an executive action requiring government agencies to reduce their carbon emissions by a whopping 40% – with no input from Congress and involvement with the public.

Clinton Foundation’s Deep Financial Ties to Ukrainian Oligarch Who Pushed for Closer Ties to EU Revealed
Washington Blog - Between 2009 and 2013, including when Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state, the Clinton Foundation received at least $8.6 million from the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, according to that foundation, which is based in Kiev, Ukraine. It was created by Mr. Pinchuk, whose fortune stems from a pipe-making company. He served two terms as an elected member of the Ukrainian Parliament and is a proponent of closer ties between Ukraine and the European Union.

Feds Urge Banks to Call Cops on Customers Who Withdraw $5,000 or More
Paul Joseph Watson - Banks are already required to file ‘suspicious activity reports’ on their customers, with threats of fines and even jail time for directors if financial institutions don’t meet quotas. But as investor and financial blogger Simon Black points out, last week, “A senior official from the Justice Department spoke to a group of bankers about the need for them to rat out their customers to the police.” Assistant attorney general Leslie Caldwell gave a speech in which he urged banks to “alert law enforcement authorities about the problem” so that police can “seize the funds” or at least “initiate an investigation”.

Why Did Ted Cruz Refuse to Disclose How Much His Wife-a VP at Goldman Sachs-Makes?
Alternet - [...] a curious statement on Cruz's financial disclosure shows that he may not be so opposed to the establishment he rails against. See, Cruz's wife is a vice president at Goldman Sachs, the megabank so close to the powers in Washington that it is often jokingly referred to as “Government Sachs.” Because spousal income is shared, it is required for Members of Congress to list their spouse's employment if it gives them over $1,000. They are not required to list the exact income their spouse receives, but they are certainly allowed to if they are willing to be that transparent. Cruz was not.

Election News

Judge Nap: Here's Where Ted Cruz Is Not Following the Constitution
Fox News - The judge said he likes Cruz's views toward the Constitution overall, except when it comes to the senator's views on using U.S. military force overseas. "I think Ted Cruz would probably join all the other Republicans but Rand Paul with the idea that we should - to use Woodrow Wilson's phrase - make the world safe for democracy, which means perpetual death and perpetual war," said Napolitano, arguing that Paul would be the only candidate who shares his views on only fighting "defensive" wars where the nation is truly under an imminent threat.

Election News

Report Says Former IRS Employees Can Still Peruse Your Tax Returns
Forbes - It sounds preposterous, but a new watchdog report says former IRS employees still have access to IRS computer systems long after they have no official business with the information. The report is by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress.... One co-author of the report said the IRS horde of taxpayer data can be used by identity thieves. The timing couldn’t be worse for the IRS. The IRS is failing to secure its massive computer systems, leaving private taxpayer data vulnerable to fraudsters and hackers, the new report from the GAO reveals.

Energy & Environment

FEMA to States: No Climate Planning, No Money
InsideClimate News - The Federal Emergency Management Agency is making it tougher for governors to deny man-made climate change. Starting next year, the agency will approve disaster-preparedness funds only for states whose governors approve hazard-mitigation plans that address climate change. This may put several Republican governors who maintain that the Earth isn't warming due to human activities, or prefer to take no action, in a political bind. Their position may block their states' access to hundreds of millions of dollars in FEMA funds.

Greenpeace Founding Member: Climate Alarmism "Preposterous," CO2 Emissions Saving Lives
The New American - Patrick Moore is no newcomer to environmentalism. Boasting a Ph.D. in ecology, he became a founding member of Greenpeace in 1971 and has been a leader in international environmentalism for more than four decades. And now he has penned an article entitled “Why I am a Climate Change Skeptic,” in which he says that while we’re told the “debate is over” and the “science is settled,” there’s actually “no scientific proof” of the Anthropogenic (man-caused) Global Warming thesis.

EPA Wants to Monitor How Long Hotel Guests Spend in the Shower
Richard Billies - The agency is spending $15,000 to create a wireless system that will track how much water a hotel guest uses to get them to “modify their behavior.”...“This device will be designed to fit most new and existing hotel shower fixtures and will wirelessly transmit hotel guest water usage data to a central hotel accounting system.”... “This technology will provide hotel guests with the ability to monitor their daily water online or using a smartphone app and will assist hotel guest in modifying their behavior to help conserve water,” the grant said. The project was filed under “Water conservation,” “Urban water planning,” and “Sustainable water management.”

Science & Technology

NSA Bulk Surveillance Could Continue even if Legal Authority Expires on June 1
AllGov - The provision of the USA Patriot Act that allows the data collection, Section 215, is set to expire on June 1, and so far, lawmakers haven’t adopted legislation extending this authority. However, the Obama administration could continue the NSA program by drafting a legal memo authorizing the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to in turn approve the bulk collection effort until Congress does act.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

Colorado House votes to end unique ban on rain barrels
(AP) - The bill allows homeowners to collect up to 110 gallons in rain barrels. Colorado's rain-barrel ban is little known and widely flouted, with rain barrels for sale at many home-gardening stores and commonly used by home gardeners. But the barrels technically violate Colorado water law, which says that people don't own the water that runs on or through their property. They can use the water, but they can't keep it. Colorado's law banning rain barrels was amended in 2009 to allow use by people with their own wells. But the change didn't apply to municipal water users. The House approved the rain barrel bill 45-20, sending it to the Senate.

Bay Area Air Quality Management District Seeking to Ban Wood-Burning Fireplaces
NBC - In a move sure to draw fire from homeowners, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District wants to ban the sale of all homes with wood-burning fireplaces. To rent or sell homes, homeowners would have to replace their wood fireplaces with gas ones. The ban would also extend to fireplaces in all new homes. The new measure could take effect as soon as this November.

Health

Gilead Warns After Hepatitis Patient on Heart Drug Dies
(Bloomberg) - Gilead Sciences Inc. said nine patients taking its hepatitis C drugs Harvoni or Sovaldi along with the heart treatment amiodarone developed abnormally slow heartbeats and one died of cardiac arrest. Three required a pacemaker to be inserted.

Seven Inexpensive Superfoods That'll Make You Feel Incredible
Dr. Mercola - Once you're eating non-adulterated foods—foods that are as close to their natural state as possible—then basically everything you eat is a "superfood." You need nutrients—all of them—and nutrients are found in abundance in fresh, raw foods. Still, suggestions of specific items can be helpful to steer you in the right direction, so to help you get started, I've compiled two lists: one consisting of seven every-day nutritional powerhouses, plus another one with seven superfoods you may never have heard of—because eating healthy doesn't have to be monotonously boring!

How Apple Cider Vinegar Can Change Your Life
Dr. Mercola - “Mother” of vinegar, a cobweb-like amino acid-based substance found in unprocessed, unfiltered vinegar, indicates your vinegar is of the best quality. Most manufacturers pasteurize and filter their vinegar to prevent the mother from forming, but the “murky” kind is best, especially if you’re planning to consume it. Vinegar is not only useful for cooking, it’s useful for health purposes, cleaning, garden care, hygiene, and much more. In fact, a jug of vinegar is easily one of the most economical and versatile remedies around. I recommend keeping it in your home at all times…
 


Monday - March 23, 2015 - Today in History:

1775 - American revolutionary Patrick Henry declared, "give me liberty, or give me death!"
1806 - Explorers Lewis and Clark, reached the Pacific coast, and began their return journey to the east.
1868 - The University of California was founded in Oakland, CA.
1889 - U.S. President Harrison opened Oklahoma for white colonization.
1903 - The Wright brothers obtained an airplane patent.
1903 - U.S. troops were sent to Honduras to protect the American consulate during revolutionary activity.
1922 - The first airplane landed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.
1925 - The state of Tennessee enacted a law that made it a crime for a teacher in any state-supported public school to teach any theory that was in contradiction to the Bible's account of man's creation.
1942 - During World War II, the U.S. government began evacuating Japanese-Americans from West Coast homes to detention centers.
1951 - U.S. paratroopers descended from flying boxcars in a surprise attack in Korea.
1957 - The U.S. Army sold the last of its homing pigeons.
1965 - America's first 2-person space flight took off from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard. It was the Gemini 3.
1972 - The U.S. called a halt to the peace talks on Vietnam being held in Paris.
1983 - U.S. President Reagan first proposed development of technology to intercept enemy missiles. The proposal became known as the Strategic Defense Initiative and "Star Wars."
1990 - Former Exxon Valdez Capt. Joseph Hazelwood was ordered to help clean up Prince William Sound and pay $50,000 in restitution for the 1989 oil spill.
1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that term limits for state lawmakers were constitutional.
1998 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin fired his Cabinet.
2001 - Russia's orbiting Mir space station plunged into the South Pacific after its 15-years of use.
2003 - A U.S. Army maintenance convoy was ambushed in Iraq; 11 soldiers were killed and seven were captured, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch.
2008 - A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in Baghdad, pushing the overall American death toll in the five-year war to at least 4,000.
2010 - President Barack Obama signed a $938 billion health care overhaul.
2012 - The U.S. Army formally charged Staff Sgt. Robert Bales with 17 counts of premeditated murder in the deaths of 17 villagers, more than half of them children, during a shooting rampage in southern Afghanistan.

World News

Global Oil Layoffs Exceed 100,000
(Bloomberg) - The outlook isn’t brightening. Citigroup Inc. said oil could drop to “the $20 range” by April as oversupplies build. U.S. crude rose 2.6 percent to $50.10 at 10:18 a.m. in New York. How long it will take for the job carnage to stop is now the main question confronting industry workers. Executives at companies including BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have announced spending cuts of more than $40 billion and assured investors they’re ready to tighten further if the market doesn’t recover significantly.

US evacuates 'special forces' in Yemen as rebels seize third largest city
RT - Amid escalating violence that threatens to engulf the country, Washington announced it would evacuate its remaining personnel from the country, including about 100 special operations forces that had been waging unmanned drone strikes against Al-Qaeda militants in the region. The US pullout comes as Yemen officials said rebels from the Ansar Allah movement had seized the country's third largest city, Taiz, in the south of Yemen.

UNASUR Demands End of US Sanctions on Venezuela
Sputnik News - The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), which includes twelve Latin American countries, demanded on Saturday that the US government immediately lift sanctions against Venezuela… US President Obama issued an executive order Monday imposing sanctions on members of the Venezuelan military and intelligence services. Obama also invoked his emergency powers to declare "a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.”

Big Bank’s Analyst Worries That Iran Deal Could Depress Weapons Sales
The Intercept - The possibility of an Iran nuclear deal depressing weapons sales was raised by Myles Walton, an analyst from Germany’s Deutsche Bank, during a Lockheed earnings call this past January 27th. Walton asked Marillyn Hewson, the chief executive of Lockheed Martin, if an Iran agreement could “impede what you see as progress in foreign military sales.” Financial industry analysts such as Walton use earnings calls as an opportunity to ask publicly-traded corporations like Lockheed about issues that might harm profitability.

At least 35 countries to join China-led Asian infrastructure bank - interim chief
(Reuters) - At least 35 countries will join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) by the deadline of March 31, the bank's interim chief, Jin Liqun, said on Sunday. Currently, India, Indonesia and New Zealand have expressed interest in joining the bank, he told a conference in Beijing, following a request by Britain, France, Italy and Luxembourg to become founding members. "By deadline, (we believe) 35 countries, or more, will become founding members of the bank," he said.

Fukishima Power Plant Nuclear Meltdown Confirmed
(The Pontiac Tribune) - TEPCO and the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decomissioning (IRID) have been studying the interior of the reactor using tomographic imagery to determine precisely where the fuel is, or in this case isn’t, located. The xray-like images confirmed no fuel remained in the building itself, likely having melted through the floor into a holding unit below. “We presume that despite the meltdown, the fuel is still in the containment vessel,” said Tomohisa Ito, spokesman for IRID, “but we still need to directly check the situation one day using remote-controlled robots.”

Ebola news

Ebola Returns to Liberia After Month-Long Pause
Sputnik News - A patient in the Liberian capital Monrovia has tested positive for Ebola, dashing hopes that the West African country could be declared Ebola-free by mid-April after weeks with no new cases, sources said. "A woman has been confirmed as an Ebola patient… This is a new case after we have gone more than 27 days without a single case. It is a setback,” government spokesman Lewis Brown told the news agency AFP.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

US Marines tells troops to ‘check online footprint’ after ISIS ‘hit list’ goes online
RT - The US Marine Corps urged personnel to ‘check their online footprint’ after the so-called Islamic State released the alleged identities and addresses of 100 staff officials, calling on adherents to kill them. "Vigilance and force protection considerations remain a priority for commanders and their personnel," US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel John Caldwell said in a statement.

US Government Threatened Germany Over Aiding Snowden
Activist Post - Although previously speculated, the United States did in fact strong arm at least one nation to prevent them from offering Edward Snowden asylum or aiding him in securing travel arrangements via their country, according to Snowden associate Glenn Greenwald. German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel stated this week that the United States threatened to halt relaying all intelligence information with Berlin if they assisted the NSA whistleblower in any way. “They told us they would stop notifying us of plots and other intelligence matters,” Gabriel said.

Texas ‘Bathroom Bill’ Criminalizes Entering Facility Of Opposite Sex
Breitbart - A bill has been filed in Texas which would simplify where one may lawfully use the W.C. It is designed to address controversial city ordinances, as in Houston, which would open bathrooms, showers, and dressing facilities to all, regardless of gender, gender identity, or gender expression. The bill criminalizes entering a shower or toilet facility designated for the opposite sex.

Facial Recognition ‘Biometrics’ Coming to California School District
Breitbart - A California school district is about to launch a first-of-its-kind facial recognition pilot program for K-6 aged children. Select San Diego area elementary school children will log into their iPads through a biometric system that is being pitched as a time saver because youngsters will not have to learn or remember manual online passwords anymore.

Homeland Security Chair: ISIS is already inside US
Legal Insurrection - ISIS terrorists are “here in the United States,” according to House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R., Texas), who believes it “would not be so difficult” for them to stage an attack. “Well, we have the foreign fighters. There are about 30,000 of them, 5,000 with Western passports according to the DNI, Clapper, 180 have returned or gone to the region. And we have a — a number that I can’t disclose publicly,” McCaul said on ABC. “They’re here in the United States,” he continued.

Battle Over Constitutional Convention Rages in Texas
The New American - The controversial national effort to have states call for an Article V Convention, which critics say could put the existing Constitution at risk, is hard at work in Texas, where the battle over a possible constitutional convention has been raging in recent weeks. With multiple bills currently being considered in the Texas legislature that could put the state on record as calling for a con-con, conservative and constitutionalist activists have also been working hard to educate lawmakers on the dangers — as well as viable solutions to rein in the increasingly lawless federal government in a manner that would not jeopardize the Constitution.

New System for Police to “Detect Gunshots” Also Records Your Private Conversations
Daily Sheeple - It’s been almost a week since New York Police Department deployed a new ShotSpotter gunshot detection system. However, the innovation has raised privacy concerns among New Yorkers while tracking loud bangs, the system records private conversations.

Leaked Document Reveals Upcoming Biometric Experiments at US Customs
Motherboard - The three experiments involve new controversial technologies like iris and face scanner kiosks, which CBP plans to deploy at the Mexican border, and facial recognition software... All three pilots are part of a broader Customs and Border Protection (CBP) program to modernize screenings at American entry and exit ports, including at the highly politicized Mexican border, with the aid of new biometric technologies. The program is known as Apex Air Entry and Exit Re-Engineering (AEER) Project, according to the leaked slides.

Several States Considering Bills to Stop Federal Militarization of Police
Sputnik News - Minnesota just became the latest state to consider a bill that would stop the militarization of police authorities in the state. For years, the federal government has been giving military gear to local police but, as controversy has swelled, some legislators are looking to stop the program… A bill introduced by Sen. Branden Petersen in Minnesota would prohibit state and local law enforcement from acquiring certain military equipment. The bill targets 1033 directly.

VIDEO: Terrorizing Cop Points Gun At Innocent Man’s Head And Says “We Shoot People”
Free Thought Project - Bowie, Maryland – Police officer Jenchesky Santiago was indicted last week for holding his gun to an innocent man’s head and threatening to shoot him. Santiago was charged with first-degree assault and misconduct in office. He has been suspended since last June when the incident was reported, but has still been collecting a paycheck the entire time.

Michelle O Mandates Weighing Children in Daycare
Truth Revolt - In accordance with Michelle Obama’s Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA), the Department of Agriculture published a proposal aimed at collecting weight measurements of children in daycare, as well as what they are eating and their level of physical activity while at home and under others’ care... In addition, staff at childcare facilities are instructed to measure the height and weight of each child. It is also requesting a "Child Food Diary" from the parents: one for a typical "childcare day" as well as from a "non-childcare day." Parents are also required to complete a parent interview.

Veteran News

Director Of VA "Candy Land" Facility Reassigned, But Not Fired
The Daily Caller - The Department of Veterans Affairs announced it is reassigning the director of the VA medical center in Tomah, Wis., which has recently been thrown into the spotlight over allegations of excessive opioid prescription policies. Mario DeSanctis hasn’t lost his job, and no reason has been given for his reassignment. The VA is moving him to the Great Lakes Health Care System, The Associates Press reported on March 21.

Energy & Environment

Oil Industry Immediately Challenges First Federal Fracking Rules
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. drillers already reeling from a six-month drop in oil prices denounced new U.S. fracking regulations as costly and unnecessary, and quickly met them with a lawsuit. After three years of debate, the U.S. Interior Department said Friday that drillers on federal land must reveal the chemicals they use, meet construction standards for wells and safely dispose of contaminated water.

Chlorine use in sewage treatment could promote antibiotic resistance
ScienceDaily - Chlorine, a disinfectant used in most wastewater treatment plants, may be failing to eliminate pharmaceuticals from wastes. As a result, trace levels get discharged from the treatment plants into waterways. Now, scientists are reporting that chlorine treatment may encourage the formation of new, unknown antibiotics that could enter the environment, potentially contributing to the problem of antibiotic resistance.

Science & Technology

Genome-Altering Scientific Breakthrough Ignites Ethics Debate
Breitbart - In 2012, a protein called CRISPR-Cas9 that can function as a sort of “DNA scissors”—snipping out unwanted material and splicing in new material—was discovered in microbes. Scientists believe the protein can be adapted to remove disease-enabling mutations, replacing them with “corrected” DNA strings. On Thursday, a group of 18 scientists and ethicists issued a joint warning that the revolutionary new genetic editing tool should be used cautiously when attempting to fix human genetic pathologies, and urged against attempts at modifying the human genome that could be passed on to offspring.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

Antibiotic Use In Meat Is Soaring
Huffington Post - Soaring demand for meat across the world has caused a major uptick in the amount of antimicrobial drugs in pork, beef and poultry, according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But as bacon sales sizzle and China -- where pork is the favored meat -- becomes wealthier, pig farmers around the world are meeting demand by using about four times as much antibiotics per pound of meat as cattle ranchers. Poultry is a close second.

Health

Federal Government Prepares to Track Unvaccinated Adults (Recommended adult immunization schedule)
Health Impact News - Public health officials have unveiled a new plan to launch a massive nationwide vaccination promotion campaign involving private business and non-profit organizations to pressure all adults to comply with the adult vaccination schedule approved by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). NVAC has authored the National Adult Immunization Plan (NAIP) and, once finalized, the plan will be turned over to the Interagency Adult Immunization Task Force (AIFT) to create an implementation plan.

Turmeric's 'Smart Kill' Properties Put Chemo & Radiation To Shame
Green Med Info - A groundbreaking new study published in the journal Anticancer Research reveals that one of the world's most extensively researched and promising natural compounds for cancer treatment: the primary polyphenol in the ancient spice turmeric known as curcumin, has the ability to selectively target cancer stem cells, which are at the root of cancer malignancy, while having little to no toxicity on normal stem cells, which are essential for tissue regeneration and longevity.
 



Fri
day - March 20, 2015 - Today in History:

1760 - The great fire of Boston destroyed 349 buildings.
1792 - In Paris, the Legislative Assembly approved the use of the guillotine.
1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book "Uncle Tom’s Cabin," subtitled "Life Among the Lowly," was first published.
1865 - A plan by John Wilkes Booth to abduct U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was ruined when Lincoln changed his plans and did not appear at the Soldier’s Home near Washington, DC.
1886 - The first AC power plant in the U.S. began commercial operation.
1896 - U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to protect U.S. citizens in the wake of a revolution.
1922 - U.S. President Warren G. Harding ordered U.S. troops back from the Rhineland.
1922 - The USS Langley was commissioned. It was the first aircraft carrier for the U.S. Navy.
1965 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson orders 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers.
1967 - Twiggy arrived in the U.S. for a one-week stay.
1969 - U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy called on the U.S. to close all bases in Taiwan.
1976 - Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her role in the hold up of a San Francisco Bank.
1980 - The U.S. made an appeal to the International Court concerning the American Hostages in Iran.
1987 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved AZT. The drug was proven to slow the progress of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
1990 - Imelda Marcos, widow of ex-Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, went on trial for racketeering, embezzlement and bribery.
1991 - The U.S. forgave $2 billion in loans to Poland.
1995 - In Tokyo, 12 people were killed and more than 5,500 others were sickened when packages containing the nerve gas Sarin was released on five separate subway trains. The terrorists belonged to a doomsday cult in Japan.
1996 - In Los Angeles, Erik and Lyle Menendez were found guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of their parents.
2002 - Arthur Andersen pled innocent to charges that it had shredded documents and deleted computer files related to the energy company Enron.
2003 - U.S. and British forces invaded Iraq from Kuwait.
2004 - The U.S. military charged six soldiers with abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

World News

U.S. Loses Track of $500 Million Worth of Weapons in Yemen, Including Drones, Helicopters and 1.2 Million Rounds of Ammo
AllGov - Gone with the collapse of Yemen’s government is half a billion dollars worth of American military equipment and weapons provided to the former regime. The Department of Defense says it can’t say for sure what happened to $500 million in aid the U.S. military gave to Yemen after Shiite Houthi rebels toppled the government. The assistance covers a wide range of weaponry, aircraft and equipment—enough to equip a small army of rebels.

Lavrov: Washington is pushing Kiev to military solution of Donbass conflict
RT - The US is inciting Kiev to end the crisis in eastern Ukraine by force, said the Russian foreign minister citing US support of the recent Ukrainian law on the special self-governing status of Donbass, which Moscow says undermines the Minsk-2 deal. “If Washington welcomes the action, which undermines the Minsk agreements, then we can only conclude that Washington is inciting Kiev to resolve the issue by military means,” said Lavrov at a media conference in Moscow on Thursday.

US plans show of force with ‘Dragoon Ride’ through Eastern Europe
RT - The United States is planning a military exercise that will weave its troops through Eastern Europe before they arrive at their home base in Germany – a show of force intended to reinforce its commitment to the Baltic states.

US Paratroopers to Start Training Ukrainian National Guard in April
Sputnik News - The Pentagon will deploy about 300 United States Army paratroopers to Western Ukraine next month to train six Ukrainian National Guard companies and a headquarters team, the Pentagon announced.... An exact date has not been finalized, but the training – which was announced last August – had been due to start in mid-March; it was delayed after leaders from Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany emerged from peace talks last month in Minsk with a second cease-fire agreement.

Future Russian army could deploy anywhere in the world – in 7 hours
RT - In the future, a fleet of heavy transport aircraft will reportedly be capable of moving a strategic unit of 400 Armata tanks, with ammunition, to anywhere in the world. And probably at hypersonic speed, enabling Russia to mount a global military response.

"Disturbed" US Will Hold Syria Accountable For Chemical Weapons Attack, Kerry Says
Zero Hedge - Now, two days after reports surfaced that the Assad government had once again decided to gas women and children and one day after the Syrian military said it did no such thing because it “doesn’t need to,” John Kerry wants you to know that the US will take whatever measures are necessary to hold Assad accountable for what other people say he might have done.

Amid "US Coup", Venezuela Takes Another $5 Billion Loan From China
Zero Hedge - China - which is already Venezuela's biggest creditor with over $50 billion loaned since 2007 - as Reuters reports, is said to plan on signing another $5bn loan to Venezuela for "wide-ranging" projects like "mature oil fields."

Russia and China to open joint e-commerce platform in summer
RT - Russian online payment system Yandex. Money is to start processing payments for China’s online platform TradeEase, which is aimed at increasing cross-border trade between the two countries. The project is expected to have a turnover of $830,000 in the first 3 months after it starts in the summer.

Yummy mummy? ‘Placenta smoothie’ business on hold over public health fears
RT - A local council has ordered public health officials to investigate a Wiltshire woman’s placenta-based food product business over fears that it may not be safe for consumption. Kathryn Beale, 41, turns women’s placentas into smoothies and pills at her home in Swindon, Wiltshire, and says she maintains a high standard of hygiene throughout the process.
However, when Swindon Borough Council caught a whiff of the mother of two’s activities, they went to court to apply for an emergency prohibition order.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Federal Judge Rips Obama Admin Lawyer for Amnesty Deception: ‘I Believed Your Word’ and You Made Me Look Like a Fool!
Breitbart -The U.S. Government lied to a federal judge, misrepresented facts and illegally gave 100,081 illegal aliens immigration status despite a pending lawsuit and an injunction. That is the argument that attorneys representing Texas and more than two dozen other states made. During the heated court hearing Andrew Hanen, a U.S. District Court Judge, said that the apparent violation had made him look like an idiot since he initially believed the U.S. Government.

'8-Week Summer Special Ops Exercises Prep For End Game And 'Mastering The Human Domain'
All News Pipeline - From July 15th to September 15th of 2015, the US Army's Green Berets, US Navy Seals, US Marines Special Ops Command and US Air Force Special Ops Command will be taking part in 'Jade Helm 15', 8 weeks of night time drills in 7 states in the southwestern portion of America in which the states of Texas and Utah are both labeled 'hostile' territory in the 'drills' as outlined in more detail in the US Army Special Ops Command documents embedded below.

Emails sought of nearly a dozen U.S. State Department workers under Clinton
(Reuters) - Congress has subpoenaed the emails of "close to a dozen" people who worked in the State Department for Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state, the chairman of the U.S. House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attacks said on Thursday.

Fight video shows likely Ferguson shooter beat up by other protester – NOT cops
BizPac Review - Video footage of demonstrators scuffling outside the Ferguson Police Department the night two officers were shot could hold a key to a case that’s already spurring charges of police brutality and a coerced confession. And it virtually proves those charges are lies.

ACLU v. TSA
ACLU - The ACLU and the NYCLU filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in March 2015 demanding documents relating to the TSA's Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program. As part of the program, thousands of “behavior detection” officers scrutinize the behavior of travelers in airport screening areas in an attempt to identify anyone who may pose a security risk.

US secret service wants to build fake White House to guard real one
The Telegraph - Joseph Clancy, the director of the agency charged with guarding the president, outlined plans for the $8 million (£5.54 million) replica to be erected at a training facility in Maryland, 20 miles from the actual executive mansion. He urged congressman to authorise the funds as he said that secret service agents currently train in a car park that lacks the layout of bushes and fountains of the White House grounds.

SF Cathedral Has Been Deterring Homeless by Drenching Them in Water
Activist Post - KCBS has learned that Saint Mary’s Cathedral, the principal church of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, has installed a watering system to keep the homeless from sleeping in the cathedral’s doorways. The cathedral, at Geary and Gough, is the home church of the Archbishop. There are four tall side doors, with sheltered alcoves, that attract homeless people at night.

St. Paul schools give transgender students access to any bathroom, locker room
EAG News - The people of Minnesota apparently don’t like it, and the state may ban it, but the St. Paul school board adopted a new policy Tuesday giving transgender students access to the restroom and locker room facilities of their choice, regardless of their biological gender.

Cops Brutally Beat Student Over ID Discrepancy
Steve Watson - A University of Virginia (UVA) student was savagely beaten and arrested Wednesday by police officers working with Virginia’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, because there was a discrepancy with his ID. Martese Johnson, an honor student at the university was charged with “resisting arrest, obstructing justice without threats of force, and profane swearing or intoxication.” according to the University newspaper The Cavalier Daily. However, the student was not accused of possessing false identification.

Economy & Business

5 year history of all major opinion polls.
Polling Report - In each poll, for five years, the economy and jobs stayed at the top of the list of concerns. Credit: Fred Lundgren CEO of KCAA-Radio

Gold Prices Will Hit Record On Surging Asian Demand, ANZ Says
Zero Hedge - "Under our central case, gold prices are likely to rise gradually, eventually breaking through the USD2,000/oz level within the next decade. This is the most likely outcome, to which we assign a 45% probability," ANZ analysts say, in a note explaining how a number of factors are converging to make the outlook for gold particularly bullish.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

Monsanto settles 7 lawsuits after 2013 GMO-wheat scare
RT - Agrochemical giant Monsanto has settled class action lawsuits with farmers in seven states over genetically modified wheat incident in 2013. Without any admission of liability the company will pay some $350,000 in donations to agricultural schools. The agricultural biotechnology corporation announced donations of $50,000 to agricultural schools in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The St. Louis based company also promised to reimburse a portion of the costs associated with the case. Monsanto said it can’t disclose how much that will cost.

Health

Biotech Bans Anti-GMO Group from SXSW Food Supply Panel
Natural Society - It continues to be clear that the awakened public will not so easily be brought down by the GMO industries. However, at South by Southwest (SXSW), it appears that money from GMO corporations talks as true debate is controlled and censored. Katherine Paul, Associate Director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), an organization dedicated to protecting organic standards, has officially been censored from SXSW.

The Can O' Tuna Argument - Synergistic Toxicity and Vaccine Safety
Brian Rogers - Certainly if you are on the frontlines of the vaccine debate you've heard the argument from pro vaxxers 'hey well, y'know, a can of tuna has about the same amount of mercury in it that a vaccine does.' Or about aluminum, 'a muffin has as much aluminum as a vaccine containing aluminum'. It is a silly argument but it shows you the mindset of some of these people that don't question and research the very vaccine inserts or information available to them before they are injected.

Attend the FREE Vaccine World Summit to learn about vaccine issues from five esteemed doctors
(NaturalNews) Five renowned physicians are planning a cost-free global online event to discuss a range of issues, legislation and other facets of vaccinations. The event, appropriately named the Vaccine World Summit, will feature presentations from vaccine researchers, experts and medical professionals.

Vaccination registration system will destroy medical freedom, mirroring gun registration
(NaturalNews) Leslie Manookian, writer and director of the movie, "The Greater Good," wrote in a blog posted on the movie's web site that the CDC has already tipped its hand.... "Federal legislation already exists that allows Federal health officials to forcibly vaccinate people against their will in the event a flu pandemic is declared. ... CDC has openly stated that vaccine registries are a tool to identify areas of 'undervaccination' so that they can be addressed and brought into 'compliance,'" she continued.

Research Discovers This Degenerative Disease to Develop in 20’s
Natural Society - Published in the journal Brain, the recent report reveals how plaques begin to form early in life. While amyloid is initially beneficial to our brains processes, the mis-formation of these proteins in the bran in some individuals is what leads to brain degeneration. The result is dementia and memory loss.

McDonald’s Antibiotic-Shift Sparks Deep Pressure for Chicken Providers
Natural Society - Following McDonald’s’ announcement that it intends on removing certain antibiotics from chicken products, food providers are feeling even greater pressure to make similar shifts. Influenced by the fast food giant’s decision, Tyson, KFC, and even Costco are making moves to push antibiotics out of their food.
 



Thursday - March 19, 2015 - Today in History:

1748 - The English Naturalization Act passed granting Jews right to colonize in the U.S.
1775 - Poland & Prussia signed a trade agreement.
1822 - The city of Boston, MA, was incorporated.
1831 - The first bank robbery in America was reported. The City Bank of New York City lost $245,000 in the robbery.
1865 - The Battle of Bentonville took place. The Confederates retreated from Greenville, NC.
1900 - U.S. President McKinley asserted that there was a need for free trade with Puerto Rico.
1908 - The state of Maryland barred Christian Scientists from practicing without medical diplomas.
1918 - The U.S. Congress approved Daylight-Saving Time.
1918 - A German seaplane was shot down for the first time by an American pilot.
1931 - The state of Nevada legalized gambling.
1945 - About 800 people were killed as Japanese kamikaze planes attacked the U.S. carrier Franklin off Japan.
1977 - France performed a nuclear test at Muruora Island.
1981 - During a test of the space shuttle Columbia two workers were injured and one was killed.
1984 - A Mobile oil tanker spilled 200,000 gallons into the Columbia River.
1998 - The World Health Organization warned of tuberculosis epidemic that could kill 70 million people in next two decades.
2002 - Operation Anaconda, the largest U.S.-led ground offensive since the Gulf War, ended in eastern Afghanistan. During the operation, which began on March 2, it was reported that at least 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters were killed. Eleven allied troops were killed during the same operation.
2003 - U.S. President George W. Bush announced that U.S. forces had launched a strike against "targets of military opportunity" in Iraq. The attack, using cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs, were aimed at Iraqi leaders thought to be near Baghdad.
2011 - The U.S. fired more than 100 cruise missiles from the sea while French fighter jets targeted Moammar Gadhafi's forces from the air, launching the broadest international military effort since the Iraq war in support of an uprising.

World News

U.S. to delay two Afghan base closings
(Reuters) - The U.S. military bases in Kandahar and Jalalabad are likely to remain open beyond the end of 2015, a senior U.S. official said, as Washington considers slowing its military pull-out from Afghanistan to help the new government fight the Taliban. The anticipated policy reversal reflects the U.S. embrace of Afghanistan's new and more cooperative president, Ashraf Ghani, and a desire to avoid the kind of collapse of local security forces that occurred in Iraq after the U.S. pull-out there.

Washington Warns of 'Policy Ramifications' for Netanyahu as Tensions Mount
Sputnik News - On Wednesday, instead of congratulating Netanyahu on his narrow victory in Israel’s national elections – as leaders from Canada and Britain did – the Obama administration promised consequences for the prime minister’s vow to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

US drone strike kills top Al-Shabaab leader
RT - The Pentagon said an American drone strike killed a key Al-Shabaab operative responsible for coordinating the Somali militant group’s intelligence and security operations, while also having been the mastermind behind the Westgate Mall massacre

US warns Damascus against interfering with its ‘aerial assets’ in Syrian airspace
RT - The Pentagon is yet to officially acknowledge the downing of a surveillance drone over ISIS-free territory controlled by the Syrian govt, but scarce details of the incident hint at US involvement going beyond its self-mandated anti-ISIS plan in Syria.

Washington Retaliates: Shifts Anti-Missile Battery Into Poland, Begins Rapid-Response Drills
Zero Hedge - This week the U.S. Army deployed to Poland about 30 vehicles and 100 troops from the 5th Battalion/7th Air Defense Regiment, based in Germany. The U.S. soldiers will train for several days with Polish troops from the 37th Missile Squadron of Air Defense, the 38th Support Squadron, and the 3rd Brigade of Air Defense Command. The American forces will set up their Patriot air and missile defense assets in Poland to demonstrate the U.S. Army’s capacity to deploy Patriot systems rapidly within NATO territory.

Tunisia Attack Has Roots in NATO’s Destabilization of Libya
Paul Joseph Watson - Group likely to be behind siege was hired by U.S. State Department to defend Benghazi consulate. The attack on a museum in the capital of Tunisia has its roots in NATO’s destabilization of neighboring Libya, during which terrorists affiliated with Al-Qaeda were armed and funded in the effort to topple Colonel Gaddafi.

Here We Go Again: YouTube Clips Of Syrian "Chemical Attacks" Are Back - Meet The Man Behind The Propaganda
Zero Hedge - US foreign policy is becoming so easy and predictable, even Derek Zoolander can do it. Two weeks ago, when discussing the relentless attempts to provoke, or at least greenlight another quasi war with Syria's president Assad, we wrote "one can be confident that the ISIS "campaign" will continue and get ever closer to Damascus until yet another appropriately-framed YouTube clip appears and leads to another war with Assad."

Greece adopts anti-poverty law in face of EU opposition
RT - The Greek parliament approved a “humanitarian crisis” bill Wednesday, the first of a raft of social measures proposed by new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, despite stiff opposition from the European Commission, who called the law a “unilateral” action. The bill, which adopted housing allowances and emergency food aid for the poorest Greeks, was passed with support from conservative New Democracy lawmakers, as the government snubbed efforts by the European Commission to scupper it.... The bill also included a 100-installment payment scheme for taxpayers to settle their debts with the state, which was fingered by the commission as “fragmentary” action for solving Athens’ debt problems.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Obama Calls For Mandatory Voting
Kit Daniels - Speaking at the City Club of Cleveland on Wednesday, the president pointed out that several countries such as Australia already have compulsory voting in which citizens are fined or even jailed for not voting in elections. “It would be transformative if everybody voted,” Obama said. “That would counteract [campaign] money more than anything.” “If everybody voted, then it would completely change the political map in this country.”

Army starts destroying largest US stockpile of chemical weapons
RT - The process of destroying America’s largest remaining stockpile of chemical weapons began on Wednesday in Colorado, more than a decade after the Defense Department approved the destruction of 780,000 shells containing 2,600 tons of mustard agent. It will take four years to destroy the inventory leftover from World War II at Pueblo Chemical Depot in southern Colorado. The work is being scheduled under the 1997 international treaty banning all chemical weapons, and the material will be moved from a storage bunker to an airtight structure. Depot spokesman Thomas Schultz told AP that “managers don’t want to expose crews or the containers to storms.”

State Dept. Finally Admits: No Record Hillary Clinton Signed Standard Exit Form
Breitbart - Another piece of the puzzle fell into place in Hillary Clinton’s ever-deepening email scandal, as the State Department – following days of absolutely absurd foot-dragging – finally admitted it can’t seem to find any record of her signed Form OF-109. This is a crucial document signed by departing State Department employees, testifying that all official records have been turned over, including – but not limited to – classified materials and emails. Since it is manifestly obvious that Hillary Clinton didn’t turn over all such materials, her signature on the OF-109 would have constituted perjury.

Border Agent: Patrol Punished For Reporting Large Groups Of Illegals
Steve Watson - A border patrol agent has testified that the Department of Homeland Security is deliberately fudging data to hoodwink the American public into believing that the border is secure, when in reality it is overrun, with 60 percent of all illegal crossers going uncaptured. I want to be crystal clear – the border is not secure,” border agent Chris Cabrera told the Senate Homeland Security Committee Tuesday.

Internal Audit Criticizes Border Patrol for not Testing Rail Cargo from Canada and Mexico for Radiation
AllGov - A radiation isotope identifier is used by U.S. Customs to determine if there are nuclear materials on trains and trucks coming into the U.S. But out of 222 rail shipments requiring such examination that went through six ports, 160 of the shipments, or 72% of the total, were not checked. Customs agents “may have failed to require examinations of rail shipments that were at a higher risk to contain...weapons of mass destruction [and] potential instruments of terrorism" from entering the U.S.

Texas Lawmaker Wants To Make It Illegal To Film Cops From Less Than 25 Feet Away
Techdirt - Filed by Dallas State Representative Jason Villalba (R), the bill prohibits anyone in public within 25 feet of police to record them. The buffer is even greater at 100 feet, for anyone recording video who is also carrying a gun. Only accredited news organizations, like KENS5, would be allowed to record without the buffer zone.

This Is What Happens When You Call The Cops To Deal With A Mentally Disturbed Person
Steve Watson - The footage was made public by Geoff Henley, attorney for the family, who told reporters that the footage highlights how ill prepared cops are for dealing with mentally ill people who need medical help. “When you’re dealing with somebody who is mentally ill, you’re not supposed to agitate,” Henley said. “You’re not supposed to move fast… you’re not supposed to inflame.”

Veteran News

Banks to Soldiers: Thanks for Serving your Country; Now Give us your Car…The Mandatory Arbitration Trick
AllGov - Those in the U.S. military are supposed to have some protection from financial problems, such as auto repossession, while serving. But many financial institutions, including some that claim to have service members’ best interests at heart, have gotten around federal restrictions by using binding arbitration clauses in sales contracts that deny customers, including members of the armed forces, the right to fight their case in the court system and force them into hearings that are stacked in favor of lenders.

Economy & Business

10 Charts Which Show We Are Much Worse Off Than Just Before The Last Economic Crisis
Economic Collapse - If you believe that ignorance is bliss, you might not want to read this article. I am going to dispel the notion that there has been any sort of “economic recovery”, and I am going to show that we are much worse off than we were just prior to the last economic crisis.

VIDEO: Fed Drops Patient Stance, Opening Door to June Rate Increase
(Bloomberg) - The Federal Reserve opened the door to an interest-rate increase as soon as June, while also indicating it will go slow once it gets started. The new signals were contained in a policy statement that ended an era by dropping an assurance that the Fed will be “patient” in raising rates, and in a fresh set of estimates that lowered the median for the federal funds rate the end of 2015 to 0.625 percent compared with 1.125 percent in December.

Hedge Fund Manager: Fed Repeating Mistakes of Great Depression
Sputnik News - The founder of a billion-dollar hedge fund correctly predicted that the Federal Reserve would set itself up to raise interest rates later this year – drawing another alarming parallel between today’s economy and that of the Great Depression.... The Fed raised rates eight years after the 1929 financial crisis, following accommodative monetary policy to boost the economy, and it still ended up being too soon. The Dow lost half of its value between 1937 and 1938.

Texas Bill Would Legalize Gold and Silver as Legal Tender
Tenth Amendment Center - Introduced by State Sen. Konni Burton (R-10) on March 11, Senate Bill 1245 (SB1245) re-affirms gold and silver as legal tender in the state of Texas on a voluntary basis. Under the bill, individuals would be free to “use gold or silver coin or gold or silver bullion as legal tender in this state for the payment of any private or public debt.” This bill would mark the first step toward currency competition. If sound money is given a foothold in the marketplace against Federal Reserve notes, the people would be able to choose the time-tested stability of gold and silver over the central bank’s rapidly-depreciating paper currency. The freedom of choice expanded by SB1245 can allow Texas residents to secure the purchasing power of their money.

Science & Technology

New York county sheriff must give up stingray records, judge orders
Ars Technica - According to a judicial ruling issued Tuesday, the Erie County Sheriff’s Office (ECSO) in Northwestern New York state must turn over a number of documents concerning its purchase and use of stingrays. The 24-page order comes as the result of a lawsuit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and marks a rare victory in favor of transparency of "cell-site simulators," which are often shrouded in secrecy.

Underground Market Steals $12 Million In Bitcoins: “Going to The Caribbean… Hope You Guys Understand”
Daily Sheeple - A user or users operating under the name Verto and Kimble appear to be the culprits responsible for transferring the funds out of the Evolution network. But the story doesn’t end. The operators of Evolution did leave a note for their users letting them know what happened to the money. As you might expect, the $12 million in bitcoins that have been disappeared will be shared among the former admins of Evolution, with the operator of the site claiming he’s headed to the Caribbean to enjoy his profits...

Hello Biometrics: Windows 10 to Add Facial Recognition, Iris Scans and Fingerprint Reader
Activist Post - After several years of consumer complaints, Microsoft Windows 10 has been getting a lot of attention as of late for many upgrades slated for their new version of the popular operating system. However, it appears that one feature being added to supposedly consumer-friendly applications is a suite of biometrics called Windows Hello and Windows Passport. It's all a part of the move toward a full-fledged Smart World where YOU become the password in a matrix of online and real-world activity.

Largest solar storm for two years hits Earth and is so powerful it pulls the aurora SOUTH
Daily Mail - A severe solar storm has smacked Earth with a surprisingly big geomagnetic jolt, potentially affecting power grids and GPS tracking while pushing the colorful northern lights farther south, federal forecasters said. So far no damage has been reported.... This storm ranks a 4, called severe, on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 1-to-5 scale for geomagnetic effects. It is the strongest solar storm to blast Earth since the fall of 2013. It's been nearly a decade since a level 5 storm, termed extreme, has hit Earth.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

California Farmers Sell Water Instead of Planting Food
Breitbart - Rice farmers in northern California's Sacramento Valley have found a new way to turn a profit in the drought-ravaged state: selling a portion of their water supply to thirsty southern Californians for a premium price. According to NBC News, Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District (MWD) is offering Sacramento Valley rice farmers $700 per acre-foot of water, more than double the amount it paid for the same water in 2010 and a significant increase from the $500 it offered last year. The offer is good–so good that many rice farmers say they cannot afford to pass it up.

Survival/Preparedness

What Do You Prep For: Common Personal Disasters
Karl Denninger - The goal here is to have something you can grab in seconds and that will get you home (or to someone you trust, if your home is destroyed) in a bad situation. Comfort is not a factor and neither is the end of civilization, social order or anything similar. These scenarios all presume the disaster is local to you but that doesn’t make it any less real from your point of view. They are the most-common scenarios and yet they’re also the ones that most people who call themselves “preppers” pay the least attention to.

Health

Water Fluoridation Linked to Increased ADHD in Kids
thenewamerican.com - Millions of children and adolescents have been diagnosed (and misdiagnosed) as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. A new study suggests that many of them may suffer from symptoms labeled as ADHD that are the result of fluoride that has been put in their tap water by government edict.

Laced with Toxins, But They Were Probably on Your Dinner Plate Tonight
Dr. Mercola - These 8 "worst of the worst" food ingredients can wallop your health, linked to many chronic diseases, including Parkinson's, cancer, liver cirrhosis, Alzheimer's, and more. But they're probably on your dinner plate, unless you take great care to avoid them.

Denied: Lawmakers Fighting to Hide GMO Ingredients Nationwide
Natural Society - Despite an overwhelming number of consumers voicing their desire to know what's in their food, Idaho lawmakers, as well as others, are taking steps toward making sure that never happens. In the face of states introducing and passing GMO labeling laws that would require the labeling of genetically modified foods, these lawmakers are asking the federal government to make sure there will never be any required labeling, and that all labeling be voluntary.

McDonald’s Assaults Reporter Asking About McNugget Ingredients (Video)
Anthony Gucciardi - What does it take to get physically removed from McDonald’s? Apparently, as I found out, all it takes is to ask one of their employees about what’s actually inside their McNuggets. It even resulted in a whopping 7 police officers at the scene to ‘escort’ me off their property. All for asking about the McNuggets (which I was never able to purchase).... Here are just some of the ingredients found in fast food items...

10 Natural Substances That Could Help Cure Type 1 Diabetes
Green Med Info - Could the long sought-after cure for type 1 diabetes be as close as your kitchen cupboard? An accumulating body of scientific research appears to point in exactly that direction.
 



Wednesday - March 18, 2015 - Today in History:

1766 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act.
1818 - The U.S. Congress approved the first pensions for government service.
1834 - The first railroad tunnel in the U.S. was completed. The work was in Pennsylvania.
1874 - Hawaii signed a treaty giving exclusive trading rights with the islands to the U.S.
1911 - Theodore Roosevelt opened the Roosevelt Dam in Arizona. It was the largest dam in the U.S. at the time.
1917 - The Germans sank the U.S. ships, City of Memphis, Vigilante and the Illinois, without any warning.
1938 - Mexico took control of all foreign-owned oil properties on its soil.
1942 - The third military draft began in the U.S. because of World War II.
1943 - American forces took Gafsa in Tunisia.
1945 - 1,250 U.S. bombers attacked Berlin.
1963 - The U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Miranda decision concerning legal council for defendants.
1969 - U.S. President Nixon authorizes Operation Menue. It was the ‘secret’ bombing of Cambodia.
1971 - U.S. helicopters airlifted 1,000 South Vietnamese soldiers out of Laos.
1975 - Saigon abandoned most of the Central Highlands of Vietnam to Hanoi.
1977 - Vietnam turned over an MIA to a U.S. delegation.
1981 - The U.S. disclosed that there were biological weapons tested in Texas in 1966.
1986 - The U.S. Treasury Department announced that a clear, polyester thread was to be woven into bills in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.
1987 - The U.S. performed nuclear tests at a Nevada test site.
2005 - Doctors in Florida, acting on orders of a state judge, removed Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. (The brain-damaged woman died 13 days later.)
2008 - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama confronted America's racial divide with a speech in Philadelphia. It was prompted by incendiary racial remarks made by Obama's African-American pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
2010 - President Barack Obama signed into law a $38 billion jobs bill containing a modest mix of tax breaks and spending designed to encourage the private sector to start hiring again.
2011 - President Barack Obama demanded that Moammar Gadhafi halt all military attacks on civilians and said that if the Libyan leader did not stand down, the United States would join other nations in launching military action against him.

World News

Iran, Hezbollah left off US terror threat listing
RT - Iran and Hezbollah were left out of an annual terrorism threat assessment report offered in late February to the US Senate by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Iran and Hezbollah had been fixtures on the annual report before 2015. Iran’s efforts to fight Sunni extremists, including the so-called Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIL or ISIS), were touted in the unclassified version of the Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Communities, released recently.

Blockupy: ECB protesters clash with Frankfurt police, tear gas deployed (PHOTOS)
RT - Some 350 people have been detained at the Blockupy protest in Frankfurt on the day the European Central Bank headquarters open in the city. 70 police have been injured in clashes. Tear gas was used against protesters, who pelted stones and torched cars. “Many protesters have been injured as police used water cannons and tear gas,” representatives of Blockupy movement told RIA Novosti. The protest is to go on into the night. According to Deutsche Welle, protesters are now trying to storm the new ECB building.

Greek protesters target police, torch cars in Athens demanding prison closure
RT - Protesters in Athens threw petrol bombs at police and set cars on fire as they demanded the release of jailed political prisoners. They also want the Syriza government to keep its promise to close down the controversial high-security ‘Type C’ prisons.

Greek PM To Meet With Putin Amid Cash Crunch
Zero Hedge - News of an upcoming meeting between Tsipras and Putin comes just days ahead of EU Summit and a €2 billion debt repayment, suggesting Athens may be playing one of its few remaining cards.

UN Security Council: ISIS replacing Taliban in Afghanistan
RT - The Islamic State has infiltrated into Afghanistan and is attempting to step into the Taliban's boots, acknowledged the UN Security Council. Russia’s representative to the UN warns Central Asian states could be the next stop for the Islamic extremists. The presence of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighters in the country has been confirmed by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). The UN envoy to Afghanistan acknowledged that the IS could potentially unite minor Islamist groups in the country under a new command.

Plane drops of ammunition helping to reinforce ISIS says reports
RT - The Islamic State is getting outside help, with plane drops providing ammunition for the terrorist organization, according to an RT Arabic report. Iraqi government soldiers also say this is a recurring theme and the group is as strong as ever. The battle for Iraq’s Anbar Province continues to rage, despite bombing campaigns from the US and their coalition allies. Notwithstanding a big offensive to try and win back territory lost to the so-called Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) last summer, local Iraqi government soldiers say the militant group is still a potent force.

Supersonic strategic bombers heading to Crimea for drills – military source
RT - Russia’s Air Force is deploying an unspecified number of strategic nuclear-capable supersonic bombers to Crimea, according to a source. The major drills also include deployment of tactical Iskander ballistic missiles to the Kaliningrad exclave in Europe. Several Tu-22M3 (NATO designation ‘Backfire’) variable-sweep wing, long-range strategic and maritime strike rocket aircraft are due to arrive to Crimea as part of global training exercises for the Russian military in the European part of the country.

US loses drone over Syria, which claims to have brought it down
The Guardian - The United States lost contact with an unarmed Predator drone over Syria on Tuesday, US officials said, stopping short of confirming the plane was taken down by Syrian air defences, as reported by Syrian state media. “At this time, we have no information to corroborate press reports that the aircraft was shot down,” a US defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We are looking into the incident and will provide more details when available.“

France & Germany to join China-led $50bn infrastructure bank, along with Italy
RT - The finance ministries of France and Germany have confirmed they’ll join China’s new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and Italy is expected to soon. Joining the rival to the US-led World Bank is seen as a setback for the Obama administration. ... The new China-led bank is expected to challenge the Washington-based World Bank, so the US is increasing pressure on its allies not to join the institution. The US’ concern is that the new investment bank might not have high standards of governance and environmental and social safeguards. The new bank is expected to challenge the Western dominance of the US-led World Bank and IMF in global infrastructure projects, which experts believe will create healthy competition.

Standstill After Israeli Polls Close: Likud, Zionist Union Neck and Neck
Sputnik News - Israel’s Channel 1 and Channel 10 exit polls give Netanyahu’s Likud party 27 seats, and Herzog’s Zionist Union party 27 seats in a 120-member Parliament. Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 2 exit poll gives Netanyahu’s Likud party 28 seats, and Herzog’s Zionist Union party 27 seats in Parliament.... Final results are not expected until early Wednesday morning.... Despite the deadlock, Netanyahu, on Twitter, claimed a "great victory.”
* Related: Tens Of Thousands Attend Anti-Netanyahu Rally In Tel Aviv

Ebola news

Four more American aid workers flown to US for Ebola observation
The Guardian - Four more American aid workers arrived back in the US on Tuesday from west Africa to be monitored for Ebola, health officials said. The latest arrivals bring to 16 the number of aid workers who have returned in the last week from Sierra Leone. None of them have been diagnosed with Ebola, but they will be isolated and monitored during the next three weeks for signs of the disease.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Suspicious White House envelope tests positive for cyanide
RT - A suspicious envelope received by the White House earlier this week has tested positive for cyanide, the US Secret Service has confirmed, adding that another test will be conducted to confirm the results. “On Monday 3/16/15, an envelope was received at the White House Mail Screening Facility. Initial Biological testing was negative; however, on 03/17/15, the chemical testing returned a presumptive positive for cyanide,” Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said in a statement. “The sample was transported to another facility to confirm the results.”

Bill to Pull Plug On NSA Introduced in Texas
Activist Post - The legislation would prohibit any political subdivision in Texas from providing water or electricity to any federal agency "involved in the routine surveillance or collection and storage of bulk telephone or e-mail records or related metadata concerning any citizen of the United States and that claims the legal authority to collect and store the bulk telephone or e-mail records or metadata concerning any citizen of the United States without the citizen's consent or a search warrant that describes the person, place, or thing to be searched or seized."

New Bill Would Prohibit ATF Ban on Popular Ammunition
Paul Joseph Watson - Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has introduced legislation that will prohibit future ATF ammunition bans as the fight over attempts to restrict the second amendment intensifies. The Ammunition and Firearms Protection Act would “prevent the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) from classifying M855 ammunition as armor-piercing and from instituting any ban on the sale and manufacture of ammunition that is intended, marketed, and sold for rifle use.”

Bill Would Close Parental Rights Loophole Affecting Texas Homeschoolers
Breitbart - It seems like such an anomaly that Texas homeschoolers are still fighting for their rights in a state that ranks among the best in the nation to homeschool. Yet, last week, more than 250 homeschooled students and their parents convened in Austin for the Texas Home School Coalition’s (THSC) Capitol Days to lobby for legislation that will strengthen parental rights, if passed, during the 84th Legislative session.

Economy & Business

Oil Bonds Lose Investors $7 Billion in 10 Days
(Bloomberg) Oil prices have fallen more than 15 percent since March 4 to a six-year low of $43.5, wiping out $7 billion of market value of high-yield debt issued by energy companies. Prices on $1.45 billion of notes sold less than two weeks ago by Energy XXI Ltd., an oil producer that was being squeezed by its lenders, have fallen by as much as 10 percent. Comstock Resources Inc.’s $700 million of securities have declined by more than 7 percent since March 6.

Seattle’s New Minimum Wage Takes Effect April 1 But is Already Leading to Restaurant Closings and Job Losses
EPJ - As the implementation date for Seattle’s strict $15 per hour minimum wage law approaches, the city is experiencing a rising trend in restaurant closures. The tough new law goes into effect April 1st.... The shut-downs have idled dozens of low-wage workers, the very people advocates say the wage law is supposed to help. Instead of delivering the promised “living wage” of $15 an hour, economic realities created by the new law have dropped the hourly wage for these workers to zero.

Energy & Environment

San Diego Sues Monsanto for Polluting Bay with Cancer-Causing Chemical
Mikael Thalen - According to the lawsuit, Monsanto knowingly hid the well-documented health issues linked to polychlorinated biphenyls, commonly referred to as PCBs, in order to continue using compounds such as Aroclor. “PCBs manufactured by Monsanto have been found in Bay sediments and water and have been identified in tissues of fish, lobsters, and other marine life in the Bay,” the complaint reads. “PCB contamination in and around the Bay affects all San Diegans and visitors who enjoy the Bay, who reasonably would be disturbed by the presence of a hazardous, banned substance in the sediment, water, and wildlife.”

‘Basically, they just fell out of the sky’: 2,000 snow geese found dead in Idaho
Washington Post - About 2,000 snow geese migrating from Mexico to their Alaskan nesting grounds were found dead in Idaho, the state's Department of Fish and Game announced Monday. Although testing is still in progress, officials believe that the deaths are consistent with avian cholera.
* Related: Animal Diseases as Bioweapons

Backyard burger and wiener roasts targeted by EPA
Washington Examiner - The Environmental Protection Agency has its eyes on pollution from backyard barbecues. The agency announced that it is funding a University of California project to limit emissions resulting in grease drippings with a special tray to catch them and a "catalytic" filtration system. The $15,000 project has the "potential for global application," said the school. The school said that the technology they will study with the EPA grant is intended to reduce air pollution and cut the health hazards to BBQ "pit masters" from propane-fueled cookers.

Science & Technology

Judicial Committee Gives FBI The First OK It Needs To Hack Any Computer, Anywhere On The Planet
Techdirt - A judicial advisory panel Monday quietly approved a rule change that will broaden the FBI's hacking authority despite fears raised by Google that the amended language represents a "monumental" constitutional concern. The Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules voted 11-1 to modify an arcane federal rule to allow judges more flexibility in how they approve search warrants for electronic data, according to a Justice Department spokesman.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

Supreme Court May Dump Raisin Price Controls
Breitbart - In a brief filed on behalf of 33 self-identified “independent raisin growers” against the Fresno-based Raisin Administrative Committee challenging the co-op’s right to control marketing of California raisins, growers object to a supply management program that has the power to require them to surrender part of their crops or pay a penalty in times of surplus production. The independents call this an illegal “taking,” and want the Court to ban the practice.
* Related: Small Raisin Farmers Stand Up to the USDA

Health

New Texas Law Wants to Vaccinate Minor Children without Parental Consent
Health Impact News - Children should not be vaccinated by any health care provider for any reason without the voluntary, informed consent of their parents. Period. HB 212, by Rep. Toni Rose ((D), D-110, Dallas) circumvents federal and state parental rights and consumer protection laws by allowing a minor child 14 years of age and older in the Texas Juvenile Justice System to consent to vaccination on their own without their parent.

Is Missouri still trying to pass the Drug Monitoring Bill?
This act [SB 63] establishes the Prescription Drug Monitoring Act. The Department of Health and Senior Services is required to establish and maintain a program to monitor the prescribing and dispensing of all Schedule II through Schedule IV controlled substances by all licensed professionals who prescribe or dispense these substances in Missouri using an existing data aggregation platform through the State Data Center within the Office of Administration.... All submitted prescription information shall be kept confidential with specified exceptions..

Eating Flaxseed May Reduce Breast Cancer Mortality By Up To 70%
Green Med Info - Scores of studies reveal the anticancer effects of flaxseed. Researchers from the University of Toronto recently reviewed the literature to answer questions about the compounds found in flaxseed and how effective they are in reducing breast cancer risk and tumor growth, and whether flaxseeds interact beneficially with breast cancer drugs. They reviewed in vitro, animal, observational, and clinical studies on flaxseed and flaxseed oil, as well as lignans found in flaxseed.

Coca-Cola pays health experts to suggest soda as a healthy snack
RT - Several nutritionists and fitness experts suggested that sipping on a mini can of Coke could be part of a healthy diet during American Heart Month in February, but the Associated Press reported Monday that Coca-Cola is working with health experts in an attempt to promote its sugary beverage – one that’s otherwise being criticized for contributing to America’s obesity problem. The company would not reveal how much it paid those who plugged its product, but it dismissed the behavior as something all major brands do.
 


Tuesday - March 17, 2015 - Today in History:  HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

1756 - St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in New York City for the first time. The event took place at the Crown and Thistle Tavern.
1766 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act that had caused resentment in the North American colonies.
1776 - British forces evacuated Boston to Nova Scotia during the Revolutionary War.
1942 - Douglas MacArthur became the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in the Southwestern Pacific.
1944 - During World War II, the U.S. bombed Vienna.
1961 - The U.S. increased military aid and technicians to Laos.
1962 - Moscow asked the U.S. to pull out of South Vietnam.
1966 - A U.S. submarine found a missing H-bomb in the Mediterranean off of Spain.
1970 - The U.S. Army charged 14 officers with suppression of facts in the My Lai massacre case.
1972 - U.S. President Nixon asked Congress to halt busing in order to achieve desegregation.
1973 - Twenty were killed in Cambodia when a bomb went off that was meant for the Cambodian President Lon Nol.
1973 - The first American prisoners of war (POWs) were released from the "Hanoi Hilton" in Hanoi, North Vietnam.
1989 - A series of solar flares caused a violent magnetic storm that brought power outages over large regions of Canada.
1992 - White South Africans approved constitutional reforms to give legal equality to blacks.
1999 - A panel of medical experts concluded that marijuana had medical benefits for people suffering from cancer and AIDS.
1999 - The International Olympic Committee expelled six of its members in the wake of a bribery scandal.
2009 - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer published its final print edition.
2011 - The U.N. Security Council voted to authorize military action to protect civilians and impose a no-fly zone over Libya.

World News

Netanyahu says no Palestinian state if he wins
Washington Post - On the final day of his reelection campaign, Benjamin Netanyahu said that as long as he serves as prime minister of Israel, there will not be an independent Palestinian nation.... Netanyahu’s assertion, made on camera to an Israeli news Web site, appeared to reverse the prime minister’s previous declarations of support for a sovereign Palestinian state.
* Related: Israeli elections: 4th term or end of Netanyahu era? Live Updates

Anti-terror censorship: France blocks 5 sites without court order
RT - Among the sites that are being restricted is al-Hayat Media Center, accused of possible links with Islamic State militants, according to Cazeneuve. The ministry also says it plans to target “dozens” of other similar websites. Internet service providers have been given 24 hours to take “all necessary measures to block the listing of these addresses” under the new rules introduced in November last year.... Visitors to the sites are now redirected to a page from the French Interior Ministry, containing a warning graphic of a big red palm, reading “the contents...incites terrorism or justifies terror acts.”

"Colossal Defeat" For Obama As Australia Joins China's Regional Bank
Zero Hedge - Having attacked its "closest ally" UK for "constant accomodation" with China, we suspect President Obama will be greatly displeased at yet another close-ally's decision to partner up with the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). As The Australian reports, "make no mistake," the decision by Australia's Abbott government to sign on for negotiations to join China’s regional bank, foreshadowed by Tony Abbott at the weekend, "represents a colossal defeat for the Obama administration’s incompetent, distracted, ham-fisted dip­lomacy in Asia." It seems de-dollarization continues...

Vladimir Putin reappears in public for first time in 10 days
The Telegraph - Russian president says life "would be boring without gossip" as he attends meeting in Saint Petersburg on Monday, after days of rumours about his absence.... The Kremlin has repeated said that Putin is in good health, maintaining that he has simply been conducting meetings behind closed doors. That did not stop social media users from speculating that Mr Putin has had a stroke, or is even dead.

International Media Hysterical Over Putin's Comment on Nuclear Readiness
Sputnik News - Leading western newspaper headlines have focused on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments about Russia’s readiness to place its nuclear forces on alert in the event an “unfavorable scenario” had unfolded in Crimea, despite the United States and the United Kingdom making similar statements before.

Iran Fighting ISIS – Is it Really a Problem?
Ron Paul - As Iran continues to take an active role in helping Iraq fight ISIS, many US neocons are upset that the US military is not over there on the ground doing the fighting. They want Americans believe that only another US invasion of Iraq – and of Syria as well – can defeat ISIS. But what is wrong with the countries of the region getting together and deciding to cooperate on a common problem?

Ebola news

American who contracted Ebola now in critical condition
(AP) - An American health care worker who contracted Ebola while volunteering in a Sierra Leone treatment unit has been downgraded to critical condition at the National Institutes of Health, doctors said Monday. An American health care worker who contracted Ebola while volunteering in a Sierra Leone treatment unit has been downgraded to critical condition at the National Institutes of Health, doctors said Monday.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

The Lies End Now: "Most Transparent Administration Ever" Is No More: White House To Delete Its FOIA Regulations
Zero Hedge - As reported moments ago, the White House is voiding a federal regulation that subjects its Office of Administration to the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA (incidentally the same act that discovered none of Hillary Clinton's "personal" government-business emails since they were not even stored on government property!) which as USA Today explains, makes "official a policy under Presidents Bush and Obama to reject requests for records to that office."

Suspect in Ferguson, Missouri shooting of police appears in court
(Reuters) - The man accused of wounding two policemen during a protest rally outside the Ferguso n, Missouri, police headquarters last week appeared in court briefly on Monday and did not enter a plea to charges that could bring up to life in prison.... Jeffrey L. Williams, 20, has admitted to firing the shots that wounded the officers early Thursday and told authorities he was not shooting at police, Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch said on Sunday after announcing the arrest.

Chicago Police Threatening to Take Children From “Black Site” Detainees
Sputnik News - The Chicago Police Department (CPD) will resort to threaten taking a suspect’s children if he or she does not sign confessions that the police wants to have, former Chicago “black site” detainee Saul Ayala told Sputnik. “They threatened to take my kids if I wouldn’t sign the story they made up,” Ayala said on Monday. The incident took place in 2005, Ayala explained, as CPD officers pulled him out of a car and brought him to the interrogation “black site” at Chicago’s Homan Square, where he was denied access to a lawyer or to his family.

ACLU sues Obama administration over ‘kill list’ documents
RT - The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the US government in an effort to compel a court to release documents detailing the Obama administration’s use of a secret, so-called “kill list” containing potential drone strike targets. Filed Monday in US District Court in Manhattan, the lawsuit asks the Southern District of New York to order four government agencies, including the Departments of Justice, Defense and State, to heed Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the ACLU in 2013 concerning the administration’s “targeted killing” program.

Leftist Media Figures Rush to Defend Ferguson Cop Shooter
Paul Joseph Watson - Leftist media figures rushed to defend Jeffrey Williams, the man who shot and seriously injured two police officers in Ferguson last week, by claiming he was mistreated by police and attempting to distance him from the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement.

Union Official Says ‘Corporate Greed’ Behind Push for H-1B Visas
Breitbart - A so-called "war on the American worker" has intensified in the Golden State. Massive layoffs are being spearheaded by the multi-billion dollar Southern California Edison utilities company, which is terminating scores of American IT workers and replacing them with immigrant IT workers, from a slew of foreign counties, who are willing to work for far less compensation. These immigrants are in the U.S. on an H-1B visa program.

American Millennials Score Poorly Against Other Nations in Skills Assessment
The New American - A recently released report from the Educational Testing Service (ETS) indicated that American “millennials” (those born after 1980 who were 16–34 years of age at the time of the study) scored near the bottom of the pack among 23 countries evaluated for various skills… Despite having the highest levels of educational attainment of any previous American generation, these young adults on average demonstrate relatively weak skills in literacy, numeracy, and problem solving in technology-rich environments compared to their international peers.

Veteran News

Scandal-Plagued VA Hospital Still Making Vets Wait Months in L.A.
Breitbart - Despite claims made to Congress that the Los Angeles Veterans Affairs (VA) facility makes patients wait only four days for an appointment, internal documents from the facility show that 12,700 appointments wound up taking over 90 days before they actually occurred. Some new patients also had to wait months: data from January 15 showed over 1,600 new patients waited between 60 to 90 days.

Economy & Business

US blows through $18trn debt limit
RT - On Monday, the US reached its legal debt limit of $18 trillion -more than the country’s entire GDP. Lawmakers will either have to again lift it, or attempt to cap spending. As of March 12, the US Treasury reported federal debt at $18,114,324,000,000.00 in its daily treasury statement. This figure is above the statutory debt limit, which was extended by Congress through March 15 this year.

Bailout for Big Oil? US Quietly Announces Crude Buy-Up
Sputnik News - he Department of Energy said Friday it's considering buying 5 million barrels of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in a move that could signal a government plan to bolster an industry suffering from collapsing prices. The price of oil has fallen precipitously — dropping nearly 60% since June. And while the average American may be appreciating relief at the pump provided by $45-a barrel crude, everyone from the oil companies themselves to the Wall Street financiers that lend to and trade on their business has been panicking over the falling profitability of the industry.

Banks Say "Thanks for the Bailout," Now We'll Park our Profits in Overseas Tax Havens
AllGov - Giant financial institutions that benefitted from federal bailouts during the depths of the recession have repaid the American people’s largesse by hiding profits overseas to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. According to a report (pdf) commissioned by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), four big banks—Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase—which received massive amounts of money and loan guarantees to keep them afloat in the wake of the financial crisis, park large amounts of money in tax haven nations.

The Case Against New York as Home to Wall Street Regulation
Wall Street On Parade - There is now a movement in Congress to strip the Federal Reserve Bank of New York of its regulatory oversight of the biggest Wall Street banks. The movement has roots among both Democrats and Republicans who are fed up with the continuing unbridled abuses of the public trust by the unruly hooligans on Wall Street and their timid regulator, the New York Fed. The push for change is critically important for a number of reasons. Major among them is the perception that New York and its politicians are more concerned about what’s in the best interests of New York residents and less about what’s best for the country as a whole.

Boston University Economist Calls Out Congress on Enormous Fiscal Gap
TheNewAmerican - During his annual trek to Washington, D.C., to lecture Congress on its spendthrift habits, Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff took the gloves off this year. He dressed down Senator Mike Enzi, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, along with the committee's members: Let me get right to the point. Our country is broke. It’s not broke in 75 years or 50 years or 25 years or 10 years. It’s broke today. Indeed, it may well be in worse fiscal shape than any development country, including Greece.

Energy & Environment

Bay Area Water Managers Take Home Massive Paychecks During Drought
Breitbart - A new investigation into executive pay at the four largest Bay Area water districts revealed that many of the region's top water managers take home massive paychecks, despite the onset of a fourth year of drought in California.... The analysis of executive pay comes as three of the four water districts consider customer rate hikes to combat falling revenue due to decreased water usage. Just one district, Contra Costa Water, will cut construction costs and dip into its own cash reserves to avoid raising customer water rates.

US Oil Pipeline Industry Quietly Building Network That 'Dwarfs Keystone'
Common Dreams - Despite public opposition that has so far blocked the building of the Keystone XL pipeline, the fossil fuels industry has successfully—and quietly—expanded the nation's domestic oil network by installing thousands of miles of pipeline across the country, according to new reporting by the Associated Press.

Science & Technology

Senate Intelligence Committee Approves "a Surveillance Bill by another Name"
AllGov - The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday approved the Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Protection Act, which would facilitate the sharing of information from private companies to the government. The putative reason for the legislation is to stop cyberattacks, but some are concerned it will allow transfers of large amounts of personal information to the government… This isn’t the first time the committee has passed a bill like this. Last summer, similar legislation was moved to the full Senate, but it died because of concerns that Google, Facebook and other companies would be forced to share personal data with intelligence agencies.

Private Companies Continue To Amass Millions Of License Plate Photos, Hold Onto The Data Forever
Techdirt - Vigilant's ALPR database currently houses more than 2 billion plate scans, with nearly 100 million more being added every day by law enforcement agencies and repo companies. It actually has two databases. One can be plugged into by law enforcement. The other, housed by Vigilant-owned Digital Recognition Network, can be accessed by certain members of the public: car dealers, insurance companies, private detectives… basically anyone willing to pay access fees and who can offer a suitable justification for digging through a multi-billion plate database.

Health

Compulsory Vaccination Bills: 110 bills Across 36 states (bills included by state)
Natural Blaze - 110 Bills, 36 states (total list [document download]) Sample bills...

Protecting Your Thyroid from Radiation with Natural Iodine
Natural Society - With radiation exposure from medical practices such as mammograms, and cancer treatments, as well as that which is being leaked from sites like Fukushima, it becomes more important than ever to educate ourselves about natural ways to protect against radiation exposure. Fortunately, iodine has been shown to protect the important glands of the endocrine system from radiation toxicity, namely the thyroid.

Hibiscus Leaves Inhibit Growth of Melanoma Cancer Cells
Mae Chan - Originally from Angola, hibiscus is now cultivated throughout tropical and subtropical regions, especially in Sudan, Egypt, Thailand, Mexico, and China. The polyphenols present in hibiscus leaves may inhibit growth of and destroy melanoma cancer cells without damaging healthy human skin cells, scientists from Taiwan have found.

The many health benefits of eating cilantro
STEPin2 - Cilantro, which is also known as coriander and Chinese parsley, is a potent medicinal herb. It is often used in Mexican cuisine to make guacamole and salsas. This herb is packed with health benefits. Let’s take a look at the health benefits of eating cilantro.

 


Monday - March 16, 2015 - Today in History:

1802 - The U.S. Congress established the West Point Military Academy in New York.
1836 - The Republic of Texas approved a constitution.
1882 - The U.S. Senate approved a treaty allowing the United States to join the Red Cross.
1913 - The 15,000-ton battleship Pennsylvania was launched at Newport News, VA.
1915 - The Federal Trade Commission began operation.
1928 - The U.S. planned to send 1,000 more Marines to Nicaragua.
1945 - Iwo Jima was declared secure by the Allies. However, small pockets of Japanese resistance still existed.
1968 - U.S. troops in Vietnam destroyed a village consisting mostly of women and children. The event is known as the My-Lai massacre.
1984 - William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen. He died while in captivity.
1985 - Terry Anderson, an Associated Press newsman, was taken hostage in Beirut. He was released in December 4, 1991.
1988 - Indictments were issued for Lt. Colonel Oliver North, Vice Admiral John Poindexter of the National Security Council, and 2 others for their involvement in the Iran-Contra affair.
1994 - Tonya Harding pled guilty in Portland, OR, to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for covering up the attack on her skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. She was fined $100,000. She was also banned from amateur figure skating.
1995 - NASA astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to visit the Russian space station Mir.
2003 - Vice President Dick Cheney predicted on NBC's "Meet the Press" that American troops would be "greeted as liberators" by the Iraqi people.
2003 - Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American, was killed when she was run over by a bulldozer while trying to block Israeli troops from demolishing a Palestinian home in Gaza.
2005 - A judge in Redwood City, Calif., sent Scott Peterson to death row for the slaying of his pregnant wife, Laci.

World News

Kerry says US wants to negotiate with Assad… State Dept denies
RT - The US secretary of state appeared to say on CBS News that America has to negotiate with Syria’s president about a political transition in the war-torn country. But later the State Department clarified that John Kerry wasn’t referring to Bashar Assad. "But to get the Assad regime to negotiate, we're going to have to make it clear to him that there is a determination by everybody to seek that political outcome and change his calculation about negotiating,” Kerry said on Sunday. Kerry added that the US and some other countries were trying to restart talks on the resolution of the conflict in Syria, which has now entered its fifth year.

Israeli FM Vows to Defeat Hamas in Gaza, Execute Extremists After Election
Sputnik News - The goal of Israel's Yisrael Beytenu party after the upcoming general election is to end terrorism by defeating Hamas in the Gaza Strip and executing extremists, the party's head, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Sputnik in an interview on Monday. General election in Israel is scheduled for March 17. According to the latest polls, Lieberman's right-wing Yisrael Beitenu party, which currently holds 13 seats, is expected to garner only 4-5 in the 120-strong parliament.

Putin in film on Crimea: US masterminds behind Ukraine coup, helped train radicals
RT - The Ukrainian armed coup was organized from Washington, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated in an interview for a new documentary aired Sunday. The Americans tried to hide behind the Europeans, but Moscow saw through the trick, he added.

Russia to provide $13.75mn as part of first IMF loan for Ukraine – finance minister
RT - Russia will participate in financing the first tranche of IMF aid to Ukraine in the amount of $13.75 million; the Bank of Russia will deliver the payment on March 13, said Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.

US Accuses Iraqi Military Of War Crimes, Continues To Support ISIS
Brandon Turbeville - With the recent and largely successful battle for Tikrit conducted by the Iraqi security forces combating Western-backed ISIS fighters who have controlled the city for some time, Iraq has once again forced itself into the brief headlines of international media. Yet the subsequent claims of war crimes committed by these security forces have also found their way into the public discussion, most notably in the West.

ISIS executes nine 'spies' for 'betraying the religion of Allah' in second gruesome video to surface this week...
Daily Mail - SIS has executed another nine men for allegedly being spies in an unknown location in the Middle East. Each man is forced to give interview before their murder in which they admit to spying on the terror group's location, movement and armament.

Ancient statues destroyed by ISIS fake, real ones safe
RT - The ancient statues that Islamic State militants smashed in Mosul on camera last month have been proved to be exact replicas of precious artifacts of Iraqi heritage. The real masterpieces of antiquity are said to be in Baghdad. “They were copies. The originals are all here,” Baghdad’s museum director told Germany’s Deutsche Welle… However, Mosul’s exiled governor Atheel Nuafi, said that, while many of destroyed items were not originals, but there were real ones demolished afterward.

Venezuela conducts military exercises, claiming US threat
(AP) - Soldiers rolled out shoulder-fired missiles, fighter planes and armored trucks Saturday for the first of 10 days of military exercises that the president of socialist-governed Venezuela says are needed to protect against a looming threat from the U.S. As nearly 100,000 members of the armed forces began conducting exercises across the country, Venezuela's government got support from South American nations, which criticized the U.S. for the way it imposed sanctions on Venezuelan leaders.

'Innocent mistake': UK’s nuclear weapons web data routed through Ukraine
RT - Sensitive data from around 170 major companies, including the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment and Lockheed Martin, might have be compromised after British Telecom web traffic was accidentally rerouted through Ukraine. The hijacking of the companies took place over a 90-minute period Thursday, while many British Telecom customers experienced diverted traffic for five days, starting from Saturday, Dyn, Internet performance company, said in a report.

UK: Police condemned for using stop and search powers on 300 children aged under five
Daily Mail - Nearly 300 children under the age of five have been stopped and searched by police over the last five years, it has emerged. Officers across the UK have been condemned for using their powers to stop and search toddlers on suspicion of a host of offences including drug or knife crime, possession of weapons and terrorism.... Police can stop and search children under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, which states that there is no requirement for an adult to be present during the search of under-10s.

'Freedom in jeopardy': Thousands rally across Canada against new anti-terror law
RT - Thousands of demonstrators have united across Canada to take action against proposed anti-terrorism legislation known as Bill C-51, which would expand the powers of police and the nation’s spy agency, especially when it comes to detaining terror suspects.

Ebola news

Americans Evacuated From Sierra Leone After Possible Ebola Contact
NY Times - The first of a group of 10 American aid workers who may have come into contact with the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone were evacuated on Saturday, American government and aid officials said. They will be the largest group of Americans to have returned home over fears of exposure to the virus since an outbreak in three West African countries was declared last year.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Pentagon denies UN investigator chance to interview Guantánamo detainees
The Guardian - Shortly after the Pentagon took a battery of pro-Guantánamo US senators for a tour of its infamous detention center, it confirmed that it will deny the United Nations’ torture investigator interviews with Guantánamo Bay detainees. Juan Méndez, the UN’s special rapporteur on preventing torture, “has been invited to visit Guantánamo; however, he will not be permitted to interview detainees”,Army Lieutenant Colonel Myles Caggins, the Pentagon’s detentions spokesman, told the Guardian.

VIDEO: Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk 3/16/15: Iran Fighting ISIS – Is it Really a Problem?
Ron Paul - As Iran continues to take an active role in helping Iraq fight ISIS, many US neocons are upset that the US military is not over there on the ground doing the fighting. They want Americans believe that only another US invasion of Iraq – and of Syria as well – can defeat ISIS. But what is wrong with the countries of the region getting together and deciding to cooperate on a common problem?

Obama Jokes: “If I did not love America, I wouldn’t have moved here from Kenya”
The Hill - President Obama late Saturday joked about the controversy surrounding former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s use of a private email account during a white-tie dinner in Washington, D.C. According to a White House pool report, Obama told guests at the Gridiron Club dinner that he was once known as the young, tech-savvy candidate. But now, “Hillary has a server in her house! I didn’t even know you could have one of those. I am so far behind.”... And Obama’s response to New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s (R) comment that he didn’t love America drew big laughs.“If I did not love America, I wouldn’t have moved here from Kenya,” Obama said.

Cop Shoots 8th Grade Child With Taser Gun for “Being Disruptive”
Filming Cops - The Powhatan Sheriff’s Department claims that it started when the student was “disruptive” in the cafeteria. The student was then taken to the assistant principal’s office, where, they claim, the “disruptive” behavior continued. An armed police officer stepped in and decided to try to place the student in handcuffs, but the student reacted by trying to flee, according to reports. That’s when the officer pointed his Taser gun at the student and shot him as the student was running away from the officer. The Sheriff’s Department claims that the child “attacked” the officer while the officer was trying to restrain his wrists, and the child was then charged with “felony assault on an officer.”

Parents Outraged After Cop Charges 11-Yr-Old Child With “Possession” for Having a Leaf that “Looked Like” Marijuana, Kicked Out of School for a Year
Filming Cops - In another example of the glaring absurdity that is the “War on Drugs,” a cop has charged a 6th grade child with “possession” for having a leaf that merely looked like marijuana. The parents of the boy state that he now suffers from panic attacks and depression, and is seeing a psychiatrist, after the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office engaged in what many agree was malicious prosecution against the young boy.

VIDEO: Intelligence Officer: Every Single Terrorist Attack In U.S Was a False Flag Attack … Or Egged On By the Government
Washington’s Blog - Robert David Steele – a 20-year Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer, the second-ranking civilian in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence. Most terrorists are false flag terrorists or are created by our own security services. In the United States, every single terrorist incident we have had has been a false flag, or has been an informant pushed on by the FBI. In fact, we now have citizens taking out restraining orders against FBI informants that are trying to incite terrorism.

CNN Is Beating the Drums of War
Paul Craig Roberts - President George W. Bush’s national security advisor, Condi Rice, warned Americans that Saddam Hussein’s (nonexistent) weapons of mass destruction could result in a mushroom cloud going up over an American city. No such threat existed. But today a very real threat exists over all American cities, and the national security advisor does not notice.

How The CIA Gave Al-Qaeda $1 Million, And What That Money Was Used For
Zero Hedge - As the US and key stakeholders in the Middle East debate the best way to leverage the fight against ISIS in the service of a larger geopolitical agenda, a NY Times piece out today serves as a reminder (in case recent events haven’t made it clear enough) of just how pervasive examples of Western foreign policy blowback have become. As The Times reports, some $1 million in cash funneled to the Afghan government by the CIA ended up in the hands of al Qaeda who, after consulting with Bin Laden, promptly used the money to purchase weapons.

Source: Senate panel probing ‎possible Obama administration ties to anti-Netanyahu effort
Fox News - A powerful U.S. Senate investigatory committee has launched a bipartisan probe into an American nonprofit’s funding of efforts to oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the Obama administration’s State Department gave the nonprofit taxpayer-funded grants, a source with knowledge of the panel's activities told FoxNews.com.

Clintons Furious At Obama After Valerie Jarrett Linked To Email Leak
Zero Hedge - For those who follow the endless soap opera of domestic politics, the biggest story of the weekend, if so far unsubstantiated, is the Post's report that the person behind Hillary Clinton's shocking e-mail story leak, is none other than Obama's personal advisor, Valeire Jarrett. "Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett leaked to the press details of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail address during her time as secretary of state."

Arrest Made in Shooting of Ferguson Police Officers
Breitbart - The 20-year-old man charged in the shooting of two St. Louis-area officers had been at the protest outside of the Ferguson Police Department earlier that night, authorities said Sunday. St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch said 20-year-old Jeffrey Williams told authorities he was firing at someone with whom he was in a dispute, not at the police officers. Williams is charged with two counts of first-degree assault, one count of firing a weapon from a vehicle and three counts of armed criminal action.

UN Rips US For Being Only Nation To Sentence Kids To Life in Prison
John Vibes - “The vast majority of states have taken note of the international human rights requirements regarding life imprisonment of children without the possibility of release,” Juan Méndez of the United Nations said in a report published this week. “Life sentences or sentences of an extreme length have a disproportionate impact on children and cause physical and psychological harm that amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment,” the report states.

Energy & Environment

NASA Scientist Warns "California Has One Year Of Water Left"
Zero Hedge - Data from NASA satellites show that the total amount of water stored in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins — that is, all of the snow, river and reservoir water, water in soils and groundwater combined — was 34 million acre-feet below normal in 2014. That loss is nearly 1.5 times the capacity of Lake Mead, America's largest reservoir.

1.5 Million Pennsylvanians Live Within Half-Mile Evacuation Zone of Rail Lines Carrying Volatile Crude Oil
AllGov - So many trains carrying crude oil from North Dakota pass through Pennsylvania that an estimated 1.5 million residents live in evacuation zones near rail lines. The 1.5 million Pennsylvanians represent 11.5% of the state population. In addition, 550 K-12 schools, 37 hospitals and 61 nursing homes are in evacuation zones, according to PublicSource reporters Natasha Khan and Alexandra Kanik. The issue of oil shipments and the risk of explosion from derailments were raised again when a train carrying toxic Bakken oil went up in flames in neighboring West Virginia on February 16.

Fracking will ruin sacred, preserved sites in the ‘American cradle of civilization’ - lawsuit
RT - A Navajo advocacy group has asked a federal judge to halt hydraulic fracking permits in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico, claiming that drilling threatens a historic UNESCO heritage site considered sacred by Navajo, Hopi and Pueblo peoples. Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment and three other groups have sued the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and US Department of Interior, calling on a federal judge to vacate the 130 fracking permits issued by the BLM and enjoin fracking activity in the Mancos Shale of the San Juan Basin until the BLM adheres to the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act, according to Courthouse News.

Bankrupt Detroit Still Paying For Fluoride – Even During Water Shut Down
Blacklisted News - As evidence and studies continue to mount against public water fluoridation, cities that continue to do so risk individual legal action for damages and human rights violations for force-medicating. In Detroit, after becoming the largest American city to file for bankruptcy, there is a move to quickly begin water shutoffs to “protect the city’s budget.” Yet there is still money to be found by the city to purchase hydrofluorosilicic acid (fluoride) from private companies to add to the water supply. In fact, it’s mandated by Detroit city ordinance

General Mills Sued for Dumping 15,000 Gallons of Cancer Chemicals into Water
Natural Society - Unlike Pepsi Co, which recently got let loose from a class action lawsuit concerning a carcinogen used in soda, a class action lawsuit against the maker of Cheerios, Yoplait yogurt, and Pillsbury cinnamon rolls was just certified by a federal judge. Minneapolis residents claim that General Mills polluted their air and water with more than 15,000 gallons of carcinogenic solvents that have seeped into homes.

Science & Technology

What will your next rental car know about you? Everything
Christopher Elliott - Hertz is rolling out a new NeverLost navigation system later this year... Every car will receive of the new consoles, which will let you video conference with a representative if you have questions about your rental or if you need to buy an upgrade. Yes, it still handles directions, but Hertz will charge you for that feature when you activate it. Your car sees everything. New cars will have upgraded tracking technology that will go beyond following the exact GPS location of each vehicle. It will also allow the company to “see” the inside of each car and to remotely start and stop the vehicle.

An Autonomous Car Is Going Cross-Country for the First Time
Wired News - On March 22, an autonomous car will set out from the Golden Gate Bridge toward New York for a 3,500-mile drive that, if all goes according to plan, will push robo-cars much closer to reality. Audi’s taken its self-driving car from Silicon Valley to Las Vegas, Google’s racked up more than 700,000 autonomous miles, and Volvo’s preparing to put regular people in its robot-controlled vehicles.

Superintendent Confirms Common Core's Pearson Spying on Kids' Social Media Accounts
Breitbart - On Friday, Bob Braun, a former leading columnist for The Star Ledger in New Jersey, posted on his blog and Facebook page an email superintendent Elizabeth Jewett sent to colleagues regarding Pearson’s monitoring of social media posts by students in her district… According to Braun, he contacted Jewett by email and found she had discovered “three instances in which Pearson notified the state education department of the results of its spying.”

Yahoo sees 'end to end' email encryption by year-end
Rob Lever - Yahoo said Sunday it plans to introduce "end to end encryption" for email this year to boost privacy protection for users concerned about snooping from governments or hackers… The new security feature aims to allow non-technical people to use encryption with the click of a button after an initial setup of a few minutes. A test or beta version of the encryption software is being released for developers, and it is expected to be rolled out to users in the coming months.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

Pallets make great garden planters - Here's how to make sure they aren't leaching toxic chemicals
(NaturalNews) Currently, one of the most popular gardening trends are small vertical gardens, typically made possible using recycled wooden pallets. While an excellent, resourceful idea, it's very important to verify your pallet's background before planting flowers, herbs, succulents and other plants into it.

Make Your Own: 10 Herbal Tea Blends You Can Grow in Your Garden
Natural Society - From a sustainability standpoint, herbs are one of the easiest plants to produce. Many of the herbs we grow are perennials and will produce for many years. Drying herbs is a great way to save money and use for cooking or to enjoy for aromatherapy needs. That said, we haven’t completely put these perennials to their full potential.

Health

Elevated Sugar Intake Linked to Significantly Raised Risk of Obesity, Diabetes, and Heart Disease
Dr. Mercola - Added sugar, and processed fructose in particular, is a primary driver of the metabolic dysfunction underlying obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. To prevent chronic disease such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, WHO suggests limiting your added sugar consumption to a maximum of five percent of your daily calories. Studies have shown that those who consume 25 percent or more of their daily calories as sugar are twice as likely to die from heart disease as those who get less than 7-10 percent of their calories from sugar.

A tasty way to help prevent cardiovascular disease, cancer, and dementia
(NaturalNews) Up until a few decades ago, blueberries didn't have the superfood status they rightfully claim now. As a matter of fact, they were considered lacking in nutrition. Since then, serious testing and analysis have proven blueberries are truly tasty, medicinal foods.

Are Proposed Forced Vaccination Laws Comparable to Eugenics Forced Sterilization Laws in the U.S.?
Health Impact News - Constitutional attorney Jonthan Emord has written an excellent commentary about current legislative efforts to remove vaccine exemptions, and increase forced vaccinations against people's wills. Emord writes: "The current rush to revoke laws allowing conscientious dissent from compulsory vaccination, including encumbering or revoking grounds based on religious or medical grounds, are a return to a very ugly era of elitism, one of gross intrusion into rights of personal autonomy and liberty that left us only a few decades ago."

WATCH: Time Lapse of Cannabis Eating Cancer Cells
Natural Blaze - [...] The SETH Group that showed compounds in cannabis can stop the growth of human glioblastoma multiforma (GBM) brain cancer cells. The SETH Group says "No chemotherapy can match this nontoxic anti-cancer action." Even last year in 2012 a pair of scientists at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco found THC stops metastasis in many kinds of aggressive cancer.

24,000 Chemicals may be Tainting Your Bottled Water
Natural Society - German researchers have discovered endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in water bottles that could adversely affect development and reproduction. In fact, there are 24,520 suspect chemicals found to be present in 18 different water bottle brands that could be wreaking your health.

Avoiding Gluten Good For More Than Just Celiacs, Study Confirms
Green Med Info - If listening to your body has lead you to identify gluten as a health problem and you feel better after removing it, a new study adds to an already extensive body of research that the rapidly expanding gluten free movement is not a fad as critics claim.

6 Amazing Seeds With Incredible Health Benefits
John Summerly - Health experts around the world recommend people incorporate these 6 seeds in their diets. Whether you sprinkle these over your breakfast cereal or have them as a health boosting snack, you can't go wrong with seeds.

Pet News

How One Dog with Only a Week to Live, Lived Almost Another Year
Fan Chan Cho, D.D.S. - Cappuccino, a Saint Bernard and former Westminster Show competitor, was diagnosed at age 8 with severe heart disease. Her veterinary cardiologist gave her less than a week to live. Cappuccino’s family took her the very next day to an integrative veterinarian who agreed her condition was grave, but also prescribed a holistic medicine protocol. Thanks to the holistic remedies that helped defend her kidneys and liver against the toxic effects of her heart medication, Cappuccino was able to have a good quality of life with her family for another 10 months

 


Friday - March 13, 2015 - Today in History:

1777 - The U.S. Congress ordered its European envoys to appeal to high-ranking foreign officers to send troops to reinforce the American army.
1781 - Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus.
1861 - Jefferson Davis signed a bill authorizing slaves to be used as soldiers for the Confederacy.
1868 - The U.S. Senate began the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson.
1884 - Standard time was adopted throughout the U.S.
1902 - Andrew Carnegie approved 40 applications from libraries for donations.
1930 - It was announced that the planet Pluto had been discovered by scientist Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory.
1933 - U.S. banks began to re-open after a "holiday" that had been declared by President Roosevelt.
1940 - The war between Russia and Finland ended with the signing of a treaty in Moscow.
1943 - Japanese forces ended their attack on the American troops on Hill 700 in Bougainville.
1951 - Israel demanded $1.5 billion in German reparations for the cost of caring for war refugees.
1969 - The Apollo 9 astronauts returned to Earth after the conclusion of a mission that included the successful testing of the Lunar Module.
1970 - Cambodia ordered Hanoi and Viet Cong troops to leave.
1974 - The U.S. Senate voted 54-33 to restore the death penalty.
1991 - Exxon paid $1 billion in fines and for the clean-up of the Alaskan oil spill.
2003 - Japan sent a destroyer to the Sea of Japan amid reports that North Korea was planning to test an intermediate-range ballistic missile.
2003 - A report in the journal "Nature" reported that scientists had found 350,000-year-old human footprints in Italy. The 56 prints were made by three early, upright-walking humans that were descending the side of a volcano.
2012 - After 244 years of publication, Encyclopedia Britannica announced it would discontinue its print edition.

World News

Iceland announces dropping bid to join EU
RT - Iceland has dropped its bid to join the European Union, the Foreign Ministry in Reykjavik says. The announcement follows pledges made by the country’s euro-skeptic government since winning the 2013 election. Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson, the Icelandic foreign minister, said in a statement that he had informed Latvia, the current EU president, and the European Commission that his center-right government had decided to withdraw its application, which was submitted six years ago.

Greece Passes Law To Plunder Pension Funds
Zero Hedge - As Bloomberg reports, Cash reserves of pension funds and other public entities kept in Bank of Greece deposit accounts can be fully invested in Greek sovereign notes, according to amendment to be submitted in parliament, country’s finance ministry says in e-mailed statement. Cash reserves can be used for repos, reverse repos, buy and sell-back, sell and buy-back transactions Pension funds, public entities will be able to claim damages from Greek state in case of overdue repayment, partial repayment. Pension funds are not obliged to transfer their reserves to the Bank of Greece, according to finance ministry statement.

Russia, Hungary deny report that EU blocked nuclear fuel deal
RT- Russian and Hungarian officials are denying a report that said EU blocked a multibillion deal under which Hungary is to buy nuclear fuel rods from Russia for its Paks nuclear power plant.

Partners in jihad: ISIS welcomes Boko Haram’s allegiance
RT - The self-proclaimed leader of the Islamic State has accepted a pledge of allegiance from Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram, according to a radio message released on Thursday.

US Airstrikes Have Killed More than 100 Civilians, Syrian Rights Group Says
Sputnik News - A Syrian human rights group says the US-led coalition against the so-called Islamic State in Syria must be held accountable for the deaths of over 100 civilians in their bombings of potential IS targets since September. They’re demanding that US Central Command perform a “serious investigation” and stop issuing denials.

China-IMF talks underway to endorse yuan as global reserve currency
BRICS News - China is pushing for the International Monetary Fund to endorse the Chinese yuan as a global reserve currency alongside the dollar and euro. A senior Chinese central bank official said Thursday that the country is “actively communicating” with the IMF on the possibility of including the yuan, or RMB, in the basket of the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). Including the yuan in the SDR system would allow the IMF to recognize the ascent of the world’s second-biggest economy while aiding China’s attempts to diminish the dollar’s dominance in global trade and finance.

Moscow Exchange to start ruble-yuan futures trading next week
RT - Moscow trading in ruble-yuan futures will begin on March 17 with the pair of currencies expected to become the third most popular by volume, says Moscow Exchange (MOEX) Deputy Chairman Andrei Shemetov. The number of tools that allow bidders to hedge their currency risks is currently not enough, that’s why Moscow Exchange offered to introduce a new hedging instrument as quickly as possible - futures on the yuan-ruble currency pair, Shemetov said Thursday as quoted by TASS.

GM Maize Transgenes Penetrate Small Farmers Seed Supplies in South Africa
Sustainable Pulse - A first study of its kind has found that GM maize transgenes have penetrated the informal seed supplies of smallholder farmers in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study screened for transgenes in external fields, home gardens and local household seed holdings in a village where GM insect-resistant maize had been previously grown from 2001–2008 and also analysed the seed management practices of farmers there.

Ebola news

Another American with Ebola will be flown to NIH in Bethesda
Washington Post - An American health-care worker has come down with Ebola and will be transported to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda for treatment, NIH announced in a news release on Thursday. The statement said NIH will not share information about the patient, other than the fact that he or she was volunteering in an Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone and contracted the virus.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Rewards offered for information on shooting of officers in Ferguson
KMOV - Both CrimeStoppers and a pair of Missouri Congressmen are offering a reward to anyone who has information that will lead to the arrest of the person who shot two police officers in Ferguson early Thursday morning. CrimeStoppers is offering a reward of $10,000 and Congressmen Lacy Clay and Emanuel Cleaner are offering a combined reward of $3,000.

VIDEO: SWAT team searches Ferguson home; 3 taken into custody, later released
KMOV - Neighbors told News 4 that two men, a woman and a child were taken from the home by police. Authorities said the three were later released. News 4’s Mike Colombo was outside the home and saw crews towing a car from the garage just before noon.

Big buzz about THIS State Dept. document that could determine Hillary’s fate; did she commit a felony?
Bizpac Review - In response to the news that she used a private email account and a private server as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, the party’s probable presidential nominee, claimed to have “fully complied with every rule [she] was governed by.”

Straight-A College Student Kicked out Because He Was Homeschooled
Daily Sheeple - With all this talk about mandatory vaccination legislation, a lot more parents are discussing homeschool as an option (while that option is even still available). Aside from that, more and more parents are asking how much propaganda do we really want to expose our children to on their path to adulthood, anyway? Add Common Core to make matters that much more ridiculous and more people are choosing homeschool as the best option for their child’s mind.

US Major Weapons Program Spending Hits 10-Year Low - Government Watchdog
Sputnik News - US Department of Defense (DOD) spending on major weapons programs sunk to its lowest level in a decade, according to a US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. “Over the past year, the overall size of DOD's major defense acquisition program portfolio decreased, from 80 programs to 78, while the estimated cost has decreased by $7.6 billion,” the report, released on Thursday, said. “The size and cost of the portfolio is currently the lowest in a decade.”

Over 100k Sign White House Petition to Prosecute GOP Senators for Treason, Forcing Obama to Respond
Breitbart - Fueled by the media narrative that a number of Republican Senators sending a letter to Iran was an act of treason, a whitehouse.gov petition to that effect has been gathering signatures and easily broke the 100,000 signature barrier that forces a response from the White House.... In fact, per this ABC report, the petition has now received over 165,000 signatures.

Mom and Baby Move to Secret Location After Child-Abuse Investigation
Yahoo News - The mother at the center of a year-long child abuse case in Michigan is now being petitioned by the court to provide information on her whereabouts, despite charges against her being dropped. “It’s a bogus, coercive petition” that amounts to “social-worker terrorism,” Elizabeth Warner, attorney for mom Brenda Burns, tells Yahoo Parenting. “CPS does this — holds a child hostage — in order to get parents to comply with their wishes.”

Public School For Newborns?
Off the Grid News - A total of 15 states currently require children of kindergarten age to attend school – an idea that is controversial enough among many parents. One state, though, may take that a step further and give the state head of public education authority to create schools for children birth through 4.

Veteran News

VIDEO: Veteran Takes Heat for Posting Photo of Child Cradled in American Flag
Breitbart - A photographer and Navy veteran took heat on Facebook this week after posting a photo of a friend and fellow veteran holding her infant child in a cradle made with an American flag.

Economy & Business

Government Admits It Can't Fully Guarantee 51% Of Insolvent Pension Plans
Zero Hedge - A new report suggests that the government agency in charge of backstopping private-sector pension plans (the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) isn’t entirely optimistic about its own ability to provide an effective safety net for multiemployer plans. In fact, more than half of participants will see their benefits cut if their plans become insolvent and are forced to turn to government guarantees.

McDonald’s Uses 1868 Anti-Slavery Law to Avoid Paying Employees
Natural Society - The people of Seattle voted in favor of a $15 minimum wage last summer. In response, The International Franchise Association (IFA), which McDonald’s is a part of, is suing the city of Seattle by citing a law used to end slavery as the basis for their lawsuit. McDonald’s is being hit with criticism for using a landmark anti-slavery law from 1868 to argue the newly passed Seattle minimum wage hike is violating the “equal protection under the law” under the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution. This Amendment was named one of three “Reconstruction Amendments” leading the effort to abolish slavery in 1868.

Energy & Environment

PG&E Suggested “Prozac” for Those Injured by Smart Meters– SCE Schemed Higher Fees to Force Smart Meters on the Poor
Josh Hart - E-mails reveal that former CPUC President Michael Peevey was aware of health problems caused by smart meters early on in the program. Commissioners and staff experienced overcharging and electronic interference issues with smart meters on their homes. Meanwhile, utilities schemed with regulators behind the scenes to raise opt-out fees to force people in poverty to stick with the unpopular meters and prop up the failing multi-billion dollar smart grid program in California.

PG&E threatens to disconnect 84 yr. old woman’s power for refusing smart meter extortion fees
EMF Safety Network - PG&E sent Lois a 15 day shut off notice in February, stating she owed $115. On Friday she received a message they will cut off her power today if she doesn’t pay.... In 2011, The County of Santa Cruz passed an ordinance banning smart meters, but PG&E deployed smart meters anyway. Lois Robin is one of many, who refuse to be coerced into paying the fees. Lois says, “This has been very stressful. PG&E doesn’t listen to you. Talking to PG&E is like talking to automatons.”

Landowners Sue Texas for Putting Them in a Water Conservation District
Courthouse News - Twenty Texans who own 406 square miles of the Texas Panhandle sued the state for trying to force them to join a water conservation district. Gary Weaks et al. sued the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Feb. 27 in Travis County Court, claiming he and his co-plaintiffs acquired "unmanaged" water rights when they bought their land. Calling it "socialism at its finest," Weaks told Courthouse News that the state has no right to force private landowners into a government water district.

Oklahoma Government Warns Insurance Companies to not Abuse Claims for Damage by Fracking Earthquakes
AllGov - Oklahoma’s top insurance official has warned insurers to not to abuse the power to deny claims for earthquake damage caused by hydraulic fracturing. State Insurance Commissioner John Doak said the science is still out on whether fracking causes seismic activity, so insurance companies shouldn’t deny claims from those with earthquake insurance. His department said that about 100 earthquake claims were filed in 2014, but only eight were paid.

Science & Technology

IBM looking at adopting bitcoin technology for major currencies
(Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp is considering adopting the underlying technology behind bitcoin, known as the "blockchain," to create a digital cash and payment system for major currencies, according to a person familiar with the matter. The objective is to allow people to transfer cash or make payments instantaneously using this technology without a bank or clearing party involved, saving on transaction costs, the person said.

Alzheimer’s breakthrough? Scientists use ultrasound to restore memory in mice
RT - Scientists in Australia have found that ultrasound can successfully treat mice by producing improved memories without suffering any damage to brain tissue. The researchers hope the discovery might help battle Alzheimer’s disease in humans. The process, pioneered by researchers at the University of Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) in Brisbane, uses beams of ultrasound to help clear tangles of plaques linked to Alzheimer's.

Senate panel advances controversial cybersecurity bill in wake of Sony hack
RT - The Senate Intelligence Committee voted overwhelmingly to advance a cybersecurity bill meant to expand information-sharing between the private sector and the government, though privacy advocates contend it only strengthens domestic surveillance programs. Dubbed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), the bill cleared the Senate Intelligence Committee by a 14-1 vote, with outspoken civil liberties advocate Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) casting the lone vote against the proposal. It’s not clear when the bill will come up for a full vote in the Senate, but it could happen as soon as April.

FCC outlines net neutrality rules in 400-page report: We break it down for you
RT - The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday published a 400-page report containing the open internet rules that the agency's panel moved to adopt last month in a 5-3 vote hailed as a victory by net neutrality advocates.... Want to know what that means, but without wrapping your brain around the report's 270,000 or so words? We've outlined a few key takeaways to help explain the FCC's latest release.

Postal Service Caught Deploying Face-Scanning Cameras
Mikael Thalen - A face and license plate scanning camera was torn from the ground outside a Colorado post office this week less than one hour after being discovered by local reporters. The camera, run by the U.S. Postal Service’s law enforcement unit, was hidden inside a utilities box near the exit of the Golden Post Office. According to FOX31 Denver investigative reporter Chris Halsne, representatives with the U.S. Postal Service denied conducting “random surveillance” despite the camera appearing to capture every driver that left the property.

Facebook to Collect Users’ Conversations for Advertisers
Kit Daniels - The social media giant announced its plan this week to show marketers “what audiences are saying on Facebook about events, brands, subjects and activities” so they can get a “holistic and actionable view of their audience for the first time.”... Facebook claims the program will strip “identifying information” from the data, but the social media giant doesn’t exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to its users’ privacy. Furthermore, the press release doesn’t indicate whether users can select to opt-out of the program, which is a notable omission.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

The Extinction of Fruits and Vegetables in 80 Years
Dr. Mercola - In a comparison of seeds offered in commercial seed houses in the early1900s to the seeds found in the National Seed Storage Laboratory in 1983, researchers found 93 percent of seeds were lost over eight decades. The National Geographic infographic below shows just how many varieties of fruits and vegetables appear near extinction. Even more concerning is the fact that the data is already more than 30 years old, and the problem may have gotten even worse since. For the record, it’s not only fruits and vegetables that are disappearing. The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership estimates that 60,000 to 100,000 plant species are in danger of extinction.

Survival/Preparedness

Stop Bleeding Fast With This Weed
Ready Nutrition - I was out in the yard one beautiful May afternoon when I made an exciting discovery. It was a tall, scraggly plant towering a good foot and a half above the other weeds scattering our overgrown yard. I crouched down to get a closer look and immediately noticed the heart-shaped pods growing along the lanky stem– I’d recognize them anywhere. It was Shepherd’s Purse!... What was so exciting about discovering this “weed” in my yard is that not only is it edible and delicious, it also has medicinal properties as well.

Health

Breastfeeding 2-day Old Newborn Seized From Parents Because Mother Has Disability
Health Impact News - A Florida couple is devastated. Child Protective Services just took their breastfeeding newborn from her mother's arms at the hospital. She was is not even two days old, but parents Tracey and Freddie Verzosa of Kissimmee, Florida will now only be able to visit their baby for feedings, under supervision. The accusations against them, according to the parents's story, boil down to the facts that Tracey is a slow learner, they are poor, and the baby was born too quickly for them to make it to the hospital.

Breaking: NJ Vaccine Exemptions Under Attack
Green Med Info - NJ Coalition For Vaccination Choice Press Release (3/11/15): It is very likely that S1147, a bill that will limits and/or removes the use of religious exemptions in NJ, will come before the full Senate on Monday, March 16, 2015. We need everyone to call their State Senator to ask them to VOTE NO or ABSTAIN on this bill. S1147 attacks religious freedoms , is likely unconstitutional and will lead to discrimination and harassment. (currently only 9,000 families or 1.7% of the school population claim a religious exemption, this is hardly reason to pass this invasive legislation)

Father Faces 20 Years Prison for Treating Daughter’s Cancer with Cannabis Oil
Natural Society - Adam Koessler wanted to cure his 2-year-old daughter’s rare, stage 4 Neuroblastoma, a cancer of the abdomen that can be very painful. He learned about the positive medicinal effects of cannabis oil on cancers like his daughter’s and tried to administer the oil in an attempt to heal her. What followed is a complete nightmare.

16 Excuses To Transform Into Powerful Affirmations
Prevent Disease. com - What would my life look like without these excuses and how would it feel? Dr. Wayne Dyer gives, self-help author, motivational and transformational speaker gives us insight into how to change our excuses into positive affirmations daily to see a change in your thoughts and intention.

Anti-Inflammatory Pineapple Ginger Smoothie
Natural Blaze - Pineapple has been used for centuries to reduce pain and inflammation. It turns out that an enzyme found in pineapples called bromelain does, in fact, have scientifically proven medicinal benefits. Two molecules isolated from an extract of crushed pineapple stems have even shown promise in fighting cancer growth. Studies have shown that bromelain reduces swelling, bruising, healing time and pain. An even more potent anti-inflammatory is ginger whose analgesic properties have been proven stronger than ibuprofen. Combine the two in this smoothie recipe and you have deliciously balanced beverage at any time of the day.
 



Thursday - March 12, 2015 - Today in History:

1755 - In North Arlington, NJ, the steam engine was used for the first time.
1789 - The U.S. Post Office was established.
1884 - The State of Mississippi authorized the first state-supported college for women. It was called the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College.
1863 - President Jefferson Davis delivered his State of the Confederacy address.
1894 - Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time.
1909 - Three U.S. warships were ordered to Nicaragua to stem the conflict with El Salvador.
1911 - Dr. Fletcher of Rockefeller Institute discovered the cause of infantile paralysis.
1912 - The Girl Scout organization was founded. The original name was Girl Guides.
1933 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt presented his first presidential address to the nation. It was the first of the "Fireside Chats."
1947 - U.S. President Truman established the "Truman Doctrine" to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism.
1959 - The U.S. House joined the U.S. Senate in approving the statehood of Hawaii.
1985 - The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. began arms control talks in Geneva.
1985 - Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announced that he planned to drop Secret Service protection and hire his own bodyguards in an effort to lower the deficit by $3 million.
1989 - About 2,500 veterans and supporters marched at the Art Institute of Chicago to demand that officials remove an American flag placed on the floor as part of an exhibit.
1993 - In the U.S., the Pentagon called for the closure of 31 major military bases.
1993 - Janet Reno was sworn in as the first female U.S. attorney general.
2002 - U.S. homeland security chief Tom Ridge unveiled a color-coded system for terror warnings.
2003 - In Utah, Elizabeth Smart was reunited with her family nine months after she was abducted from her home. She had been taken on June 5, 2002, by a drifter that had previously worked at the Smart home.
2003 - The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights off the coast of North Korea. The flights had stopped on March 2 after an encounter with four armed North Korean jets.
2010 - In the U.S., Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPad.

World News

As part of Russian territory Crimea can host nuclear weapons – Foreign Ministry
RT - The Russian Foreign Ministry has no information on nuclear weapons deployment in Crimea, but maintains that the country has the right to do so in principle. “I don’t know if there are any nuclear weapons there at the moment and I am not aware of such plans, but in principle Russia can do this,” the head of the ministry’s Department for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Weapons Control, Mikhail Ulyanov, told a Wednesday press conference in Moscow. “Naturally Russia has the right to put nuclear weapons in any region on its territory if it deems it necessary. We hold that we have such a right, though Kiev has a different opinion on this matter,” RIA Novosti quoted Ulyanov as saying.

Nigel Farage Blasts the Idea of a “European Army” in One of His Most Powerful Diatribes Ever
Liberty Blitzkrieg - We ourselves in the European Union provoked the conflict through our territorial expansionism in the Ukraine. We poked the Russian bear with a stick, and unsurprisingly, Putin reacted. But this now is to be used as an opportunity to build a European army…And Mr. Juncker said, we must convey to Russia that we are serious. Who do you think you are kidding, Mr. Juncker? – Nigel Farrage, in the European Parliament.
* Related: NATO not amused by EU plan to create separate army

Zarif to U.S. senators: You are ignorant of international law
TehranTimes - The Iranian foreign minister on Monday reacted to an open letter to Iran’s leaders by 47 U.S. Republican senators who had warned Tehran that any nuclear deal that the Islamic Republic signs with President Barack Obama’s administration won’t last after Obama leaves office.... Expressing surprise on how it is possible that the legislators of a country write a letter against their own president and government to the leaders of another country, Zarif said, “The letter by the senators show that not only they are alien to international law but even not familiar with the details of the their own constitution about the authority of the president” in implementing foreign agreements.
* Related: Letter by Republican Senators to Iran is 'unusual' and 'dangerous...

Could SU-25 fighter jet down a Boeing? Former pilots speak out on MH17 claims
RT - As the investigation into the MH17 tragedy continues in eastern Ukraine, the SU-25's chief designer has told German media that the fighter jet could not possibly have taken down the passenger plane. RT spoke to former pilots about the jet's capabilities.

750 tons of Fukushima plant radioactive water leaked - TEPCO
RT - In yet another major leak at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) reported that 750 tons of contaminated rainwater have escaped the plant. The water overflowed from mounds where storage tanks for radioactive water are located, The Japan Times quoted TEPCO as saying. Rainwater within that perimeter had up to 8,300 becquerels per liter of beta particle-emitting radioactive substances, such as strontium-90.

US to send more drones, Humvees to Ukraine
RT - Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed US was to send Ukraine more non-lethal military aid, including drones and armored Humvees. “We are today providing immediately some 75 million dollars of additional non-lethal assistance, immediately, to Ukraine in order to help them in non-lethal assistance,” Kerry told the Senate on Wednesday afternoon during a hearing concerning a proposed war powers act offered by the White House. “And, as you know, other things are currently under consideration.”

IMF Signs Off on $17.5 Billion Ukraine Aid Program
Sputnik News - The board of the International Monetary Fund signed off on a $17.5 billion four year aid program for Ukraine on Wednesday. Details on the initial payment or the schedule of the loan were not released, but the program marks the second attempt in less than a year to pull Ukraine back from bankruptcy.

Small Potatoes: Ukraine Uses Up EU Produce Quotas in Two Months
Sputnik News - Ukrainian agricultural producers have already used up their yearly allowances on the export of corn, honey, apple and grape juices to the European Union, Vladislava Rutitskaya, Deputy Minister of the Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, said Wednesday.

Greece threatens to seize German property, Berlin refuses to pay WWII reparations
RT - Germany says it won’t pay Greece World War 2 reparations after Greek PM Alexis Tsipras said Berlin is using legal tricks to avoid paying compensation. Germany says it’s honored its obligations, while Greece says it may start seizing German property. Germany once again dismissed Greek demands to pay reparations for the 1941-44 Nazi occupation of Greece.

Venezuela Seeks To Monetize Its Gold Reserves Amid Severe Cash Crunch
Sputnik News - The Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) has entered into talks with Wall Street banks seeking to monetize up to $1.5 billion of its gold reserves in order to bolster the country's shrinking economy, sources say. BCV is planning to create a gold swap providing its contractor party with 1.4 million troy ounces of gold in exchange for cash, media sources report, citing an unnamed central bank source. It is worth mentioning that up to two-thirds of Venezuela's reserves are held in gold: the country's former leader Hugo Chavez converted most the of state's dollar assets into physical gold in the wake of the world financial crisis of 2008.

The Militarization Of France Is Not Temporary: "10,000 Troops To Remain On The Streets"
Zero Hedge - The French government, having deployed military to its streets during the attacks by Islamic extremists last month, has - just as every other government in the world in the new normal - decided that this temporary militarization of French streets is now permanent. As RT reports, President Hollande has decided to "maintain the level of the army on the national territory at 10,000 troops," with a total of 7,000 troops monitoring (and protecting) religious buildings.

Ebola news

UK military health worker diagnosed with Ebola
RT - A UK military health worker in Sierra Leone has tested positive for the Ebola virus, Public Health England (PHE) has confirmed.... Public Health England said an investigation into how the worker contracted the virus is currently under way. They are believed to have fallen ill at the Kerry Town Crisis Centre, built last year by the British Army and funded by the UK government. “Any individuals identified as having had close contact will be assessed and a clinical decision made regarding bringing them to the UK,” the organization said.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Half of the US Senate Just Committed Felonies, Could Face 3 Years in Prison
Activist Post - Congress has really outdone itself this time. On Monday, neoconservative Republicans in the Senate were apparently so eager to go to war with Iran that they broke a federal law known as the Logan Act in the process. The Logan Act has been around since 1799 and has remained mostly unchanged, created to keep rogue members of Congress from undermining foreign relations.

Boston Marathon bomb trial: FBI agent mistakes Grozny for Mecca in Twitter photo
The Guardian - Agent misidentified Twitter account photo of Grozny as Mecca —Tweets revealed to be jokes from Comedy Central TV shows and pop lyrics — Sparks flew in a federal courtroom in Boston on Tuesday in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – the younger and only survivor of two brothers accused of perpetrating the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing – as the testimony of an FBI agent and witness for the prosecution collapsed under cross-examination by the defence.

Fox News analyst: ‘Start killing Russians’ to save Ukraine (VIDEO)
RT - A military analyst has told Fox News that the only way to turn the tide in conflict in Eastern Ukraine is to “start killing Russians.” The former general alleged there are 12,000 Russian regular troops currently “camped” on Ukrainian territory. On Tuesday, Fox News Channel aired a segment featuring Robert H. Scales, a former United States Army major general, who shared his own plan to settle the Ukrainian crisis. The recipe is simple: kill the alleged Russian soldiers roaming eastern Ukraine.

Kerry, Carter, Dempsey want war with ISIS, Senate isn’t convinced
RT - Three officials at the top of the Obama administration urged members of Congress this week to approve a bill that would authorize the United States to take greater military action against the Islamic State. Eight months after the White House authorized the Pentagon to begin a limited military campaign against the extremist group, a hearing on Wednesday made clear that Congress’ take on the matter remains anything but unanimous.

VIDEO: White House won’t say whether Obama uses a government email account
Poor Richard's News - We might not be looking at just a Hillary Clinton/State Department scandal. Today, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest refused to say whether Obama uses a government issued email address for his communications.
* Related: Hillary Clinton used private email address with Obama

Take Your Word? CNN Blames State Department Hack on Russia Without Evidence
Sputnik News - On Tuesday, CNN posted an article in relation to the recent Hillary Clinton email scandal. The network took the opportunity to further a narrative that the Russian government was behind the “worst ever” hack into the US State Department. But that allegation has persisted without US officials – or CNN, for that matter – providing any evidence.

‘A Slap in the Face’: Sheriff Ordered to Remove American Flag from Courthouse
Adan Salazar - A sheriff in Virginia is angered after being ordered to remove an American flag display from his local courthouse, in a move he is labeling “a slap in the face.” The Portsmouth Fire Department recently gifted Sheriff Bill Watson’s office with a flag display crafted out of recycled fire hoses, complete with a sign that reads, “A Tribute to Public Safety.”

Cops Attack Student At School; Boy Fought Back Because He Was “Choking To Death”
Steve Watson - Video has emerged of school security officers in Oakland, California, attacking a student, seemingly for no reason. School officials attempted to cover up the incident, according to reports, until the footage was released. The footage shows the security officers dragging and tussling with a 15-year-old Fremont High student across the hallway. When the student attempted to break free from a choke hold, the officers allegedly punched and beat him.... The student’s ‘crime’ appears to have been hanging around in the hallway and not moving when asked. The student was waiting for a meeting with an administrator.

Economy & Business

Guess What Happened The Last Two Times The S&P 500 Was Up More Than 200% In Six Years?
Economic Collapse - Just a few days ago, the bull market for the S&P 500 turned six years old. This six year period of time has been great for investors, but what comes next? On March 9th, 2009 the S&P 500 hit a low of 676.53. Since that day, it has risen more than 200 percent. As you will see below, there are only two other times within the last 100 years when the S&P 500 performed this well over a six year time frame. In both instances, the end result was utter disaster.

Tax Breaks for Oligarchs – The $100 Million Manhattan Apartment with a Property Tax Rate of 0.017%
Liberty Blitzkrieg - Many of the polices existing in these United States not only encourage foreign oligarch money laundering into luxury skyscrapers that remain empty, but our society seems to go out of its way to ensure they have to pay as little in property tax as possible. Indeed, tax polices don’t benefit the rich, they benefit the super rich. Nowhere is this more apparent that in the oligarch capital of America, New York City. A recent article in the New York Post made this perfectly clear...

US Government Wastes $387,000 to Give Rabbits Massages - US Senator
Sputnik News - The US government has spent $387,000 on a research program that gave rabbits Swedish massages, US Senator Dan Coats’ office said in a statement on Wednesday following the Senator’s “Waste of the Week” speech on the US Senate floor. “In his third ‘Waste of the Week’ speech, Coats discussed a taxpayer-funded study by the National Institutes of Health in which eighteen New Zealand white rabbits received 30-minute massages, four times a day,” the statement said.

Energy & Environment

Nuclear Watchdog Fines Facility for Failure to Follow Fire Prevention Rules
Sputnik News - The US government will fine the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) $70,000 for failing to properly watch out for fires near the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said in a statement. “An NRC investigation found that on numerous occasions in October and November 2012, some of TVA’s contract fire watch workers failed to actually walk through certain areas as required and, along with their supervisors, deliberately recorded that those actions had been completed,” the NRC said on Wednesday.

Science & Technology

Apple Admits Siri Voice Data is Being Sent to Third Parties
Paul Joseph Watson - Following controversy last month about Samsung transmitting spoken words to a third party, Apple’s terms of service clearly state that the company is following a similar process by recording and transmitting the voice data of Siri users.

MasterCard, First Tech FCU to pilot biometric identification program
Biometric Update News - First Tech Federal Credit Union and MasterCard will introduced a pilot program later this year that enables First Tech FCU members to authorize their financial transactions via biometric identification, according to a report by Credit Union Times.... The companies have an existing relationship, as First Tech signed MasterCard on as its official payment solutions provider for the credit union’s 380,000 members. As an extension of this agreement, First Tech will issue new credit and debit cards with embedded EMV technology as a safety measure against identity theft.... MasterCard said the biometric identification process will use a combination of facial and voice recognition and fingerprint matching.

Health

Verdict - Missouri Resident Isaiah Rider To Remain Ward of the State of Illinois
Health Impact News - Michelle Rider is in shock. Her son is upset and angry. They cannot believe that the system can get away with making 17 year old Isaiah Rider a permanent ward of the state of Illinois. The Missouri residents only visited the state in order to have a surgery there that was supposed to help Isaiah, who suffers from a rare neurological condition that leaves painful tumors on nerves. Instead of helping him, the actions initiated by Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago have resulted in custody of Isaiah being seized by Child Protective Services of Illinois.

These "medications" scientifically make you slower, dumber, and at greater risk for dementia
(NaturalNews) True medicine does no harm and promotes self healing within. Modern medicine operates in the exact opposite manner. Nearly all pharmaceuticals mask symptoms while throwing off vital inner workings of various systems of the body. For instance, a specific class of drugs has been shown to make users slower and dumber, delaying their cognitive processes. On top of that, these drugs, which include some very common over-the-counter and prescription meds, scientifically put users at greater risk of dementia. These are the findings according to a new study from the University of Washington, Seattle.

Undecided on Vaccines? This Survey Might Change Your Mind
Natural Blaze - The Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice has a website with a lot of interesting information. They’re not an “anti-vaxxer” group, and have taken a different approach to informing the public. Rather then condemning people who vaccinate, they just provide information, and are supporters of informed consent. They recently linked to a survey that is currently being conducted in Germany, which is trying to reach out to anyone who has never been vaccinated... So far over 12,000 people have answered the survey, and the results are startling.

The Vaccine Culture War in America: Are You Ready?
Health Impact News - More than 1.2 million people in the United States are infected with HIV but government officials do not ban HIV infected children and adults from attending school, receiving medical care, being employed, or otherwise participating in society. In fact, there are anti-discrimination laws that guarantee civil rights protections for Americans infected with HIV or living with AIDS.... But in 2015 after a handful of measles cases were identified at Disneyland, suddenly Americans are being asked to surrender civil liberties.

Factory Farm Antibiotics Making Children ‘Allergic to Fruits and Vegetables’
Natural Society - [...] in a case highlighted in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, this concern rears its head more aggressively. Not only are antibiotics that are used in livestock harmful, but the antibiotics being used on fruits and vegetables are causing other problems. The journal had detailed how a 10-year-old girl who ate a blueberry pie had a near-fatal allergic reaction. It turns out the problem wasn’t the blueberries, but the antibiotic streptomycin. The blueberries had been treated with the antibiotic to keep bacteria, fungi, and algae from growing on the fruit.
 



Wednesday - March 11, 2015 - Today in History:

1791 - Samuel Mulliken became the first person to receive more than one patent from the U.S. Patent Office.
1824 - The U.S. War Department created the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Seneca Indian Ely Parker became the first Indian to lead the Bureau.
1861 - A Confederate Convention was held in Montgomery, Alabama, where a new constitution was adopted.
1865 - Union General William Sherman and his forces occupied Fayetteville, NC.
1888 - The "Blizzard of '88" began along the U.S. Atlantic Seaboard shutting down communication and transportation lines. More than 400 people died.
1907 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt induced California to revoke its anti-Japanese legislation.
1930 - U.S. President Howard Taft became the first U.S. president to be buried in the National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.
1941 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the Lend-Lease Act, which authorized the act of providing war supplies to the Allies.
1964 - U.S. Senator Carl Hayden broke the record for continuous service in the U.S. Senate. He had worked 37 years and seven days.
1969 - Levi-Strauss started selling bell-bottomed jeans.
1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev was named the new chairman of the Soviet Communist Party.
1988 - A cease-fire was declared in the war between Iran and Iraq.
1990 - Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union. It was the first Soviet republic to break away from Communist control.
1992 - Former U.S. President Nixon said that the Bush administration was not giving enough economic aid to Russia.
1993 - Janet Reno was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become the first female attorney general.
1993 - North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty refusing to open sites for inspection.
2002 - Two columns of light were pointed skyward from ground zero in New York as a temporary memorial to the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

World News

Fukushima disaster: Radiation levels posing cancer risks on fourth anniversary of earthquake
ABC News - Four years ago today Japan was hit with a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and massive tsunami that caused widespread destruction, leaving almost 22,000 people dead or missing and triggering a crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The triple nuclear meltdown was the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. About 120,000 people still cannot return their homes because of high radiation levels, but the issue of long-term health implications like cancer are causing the greatest concern and controversy in Japan.

Osama Letters from Pakistan “Trove” Emerge to Defend CIA’s Killer Drone Program
Kurt Nimmo - Letters allegedly written by Osama bin Laden are patent fakes designed to defend the CIA’s killer drone program. CNN reports al-Qaeda documents, including letters to and from Osama bin Laden, are “part of a trove of many thousands that the SEALs recovered at bin Laden’s compound” after he was supposedly assassinated on May 2, 2011, in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

6 NATO warships take part in Black Sea naval drills
RT - NATO has carried out naval drills in the Black Sea, including anti-air and anti-submarine exercises. The maneuvers featured Black Sea littoral members of the alliance Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, as well as four other countries.... The drills in the Black Sea are likely to further antagonize already strained relations with Russia. The US and NATO are outraged by Crimea’s decision to cede from Ukraine and join Russia and have been increasing their military and naval presence in the region.

US Accused of Leading Disastrous Raid Leaving 44 Philippine Commandos Dead
Sputnik News - A United States drone was flying overhead as the Philippine military conducted a raid against alleged Islamic militants in an operation that ended with 44 police commandos dead in a field, according to reports.

Greek Prime Minister Seeks War Reparations From Germany
Sputnik News - Speaking Tuesday at a parliamentary committee meeting on the subject, Tsipras sought reparations from Germany for destroyed infrastructure, stolen archaeological treasures and "occupation credit" in the 1940s. "The Greek government will strive to honor its commitments to the full. But it will also strive to ensure all unfulfilled obligations toward Greece and the Greek people are fulfilled," the prime minister said, linking the country's latest debt negotiations to the subject of war reparations.

Sweden ends arms deal with Saudi Arabia after human rights standoff
RT - Sweden will cancel its arms deal with Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has confirmed. The decision comes after the ultraconservative kingdom blocked the Swedish foreign minister’s speech on human rights at an Arab League meeting.... Earlier on Tuesday, Arab foreign ministers defended Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and criticized Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom’s comments in which she accused the kingdom of blocking her speech at the Arab League meeting in Cairo. Wallstrom had been invited to the meeting as a guest of honor, as a nod to her country's recognition of Palestine last autumn.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Army Chopper Crashes in Florida: Eleven Servicemen Missing
Sputnik News - Seven US Marines and four soldiers were reported missing in a helicopter crash during the exercise flight. Two army Blackhawk helicopters were performing a routine nighttime exercise in northwest Florida when the accident occured, a US military spokesman said as cited by NBC news. Eleven people were on board and now missing.

New Setback: F-35s Won’t Be Able to Conduct Close-Air-Support Until 2020
The Department of Defense’s much maligned F-35 Joint Strike Fighter ran into yet another setback Tuesday when it was announced that the aircraft will not reach full close-air-support potential until 2022. Unlike previous precision-guided air-dropped weapons, the Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) has the ability to track and hit moving targets from up to 40 miles. It will enter service in 2017. The F-35 however, will not have the software package required to operate the bomb until 2022.
* Related: Pentagon's 'Too Big to Fail' F-35 Gets Another $10.6 Billion

Hillary Clinton Caught in a Lie
Town Hall -During a press conference on Tuesday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took to the podium to answer questions about her use of a private email account (using a private server from her family home) to conduct official State business.... Regarding questions about the use of her private server, HRC said it “contains personal communications from my husband and me, and I believe I have met all of my responsibilities.” Just before the press conference, however, the Wall Street Journal reported that former President Bill Clinton does not use email.

Judicial Watch Sends New FOIAs to Probe Clinton Secret Email System, Lawsuits Could Follow In 20 Days
Judicial Watch announced today that it submitted six Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the Department of State seeking information about Hillary Clinton’s and other State Department employees’ uses of secret email accounts to conduct government business.... These six new FOIA requests are in addition to requests filed last week directly seeking Mrs. Clinton’s emails. There are 18 lawsuits, ten of which are active in federal court, as well as about 160 Judicial Watch FOIA requests that could be affected by Mrs. Clinton and her staff’s use of secret email accounts to conduct official government business.

First Hillary, Now Chuck Hagel: Former Secretary Of Defense Also Used Private Email
Zero Hedge - [...] moments ago NBC revealed that none other than former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, who as a reminder resigned in November following intense scapegoating by Obama who needed to a sacrificial calf following the disastrous midterm elections, also used a personal, non-supervised email address. According to an NBC investigation, the White House emailed former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at a private email address during his time in charge of the Pentagon, according to an investigation by the News-4 I-Team.

ATF Temporarily Pulls Proposal to Ban AR-15 "Green Tip" Ammunition
Town Hall - ATF press release states... "Accordingly, ATF will not at this time seek to issue a final framework. After the close of the comment period, ATF will process the comments received, further evaluate the issues raised therein, and provide additional open and transparent process (for example, through additional proposals and opportunities for comment) before proceeding with any framework." Members on both sides of the aisle in Congress have also been highly critical of the proposal, along with the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The Bureau received extra scrutiny last week when it was discovered the new ATF 2014 Regulation Guidebook did not include an exemption for AR-15 "green tip" ammunition as "armor piercing." ATF has said the Regulation Guidebook will be updated to include the exemption.

LAPD uses its helicopters to stop crimes before they start
LA Times - Tapping into the data-driven policing trend, the department uses heat maps, technology and years of statistics to identify crime "hot spots." Pilots then use their downtime to fly over them, on the theory that would-be criminals tend to rethink their nefarious plans when there's an airship hovering overhead. What some see as an innovative tool for keeping the peace, however, others call a deafening intrusion.

OIG Finds Illegals Stealing Dead People’s SSNs, Again
Breitbart - An audit by the Office of the Inspector General has found there are 6.5 million U.S. Social Security Numbers (SSN) for persons 112 years or older on the active Social Security roster. Given that there are estimated to be only 35 people age 112 years or older on the planet, the Social Security Administration is paying fraudulent claims for dead people each month and enabling tens of “thousands of instances of potential identity theft.” The Inspector General “confirmed that illegal aliens were using deceased number holders’ names and SSNs to work, but U.S. Attorneys in Arizona, Florida, and South Carolina declined prosecution.”

VIDEO: School Paints Over Star Spangled Mural After One Homeowner Complained
Breitbart - If it was not enough that the mere display of the United States flag hurt students’ feelings at a University of California campus, the mere likeness to the flag was cause for controversy at a Texas public school where the Red, White and Blue offended the surrounding neighborhood’s sense of aesthetics. “The developer told us that he had one homeowner complain about the colors,” said Canutillo Independent School District (ISD) spokesman Rene Leon in a CBS4 interview.

Veteran News

VA Manager's Email Mocks Veteran Suicides
Military. com - A manager at the Roudebush Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Indianapolis appears to mock the mental health problems of returning combat veterans in an email to her employees. The email obtained by The Indianapolis Star contains photographs of a toy Christmas elf posing as a patient in what appears to be the hospital's transitional clinic for returning veterans. In one photograph, the elf pleads for Xanax. In another, he hangs himself with an electrical cord.

Economy & Business

The Last, Great Run For The U.S. Dollar, The Death Of The Euro And 74 Trillion In Currency Derivatives At Risk
Economic Collapse - Are we on the verge of an unprecedented global currency crisis? On Tuesday, the euro briefly fell below $1.07 for the first time in almost a dozen years. And the U.S. dollar continues to surge against almost every other major global currency. The U.S. dollar index has now risen an astounding 23 percent in just the last eight months. That is the fastest pace that the U.S. dollar has risen since 1981. You might be tempted to think that a stronger U.S. dollar is good news, but it isn’t.

Next Mega-Bailout On Deck: White House Studying "New Bankruptcy Options" For Student-Loan Borrowers
Zero Hedge - It appears that just as the administration is finally figuring out what HFT is, it also decided to take a look at the charts above and has made a decision: the next bailout is about to be unveiled, and it will involve a "streamlined" bankruptcy law allowing students to discharge their student debt.

7 Signs That A Stock Market Peak Is Happening Right Now
Economic Collapse - Is this the end of the last great run for the U.S. stock market? Are we witnessing classic “peaking behavior” that is similar to what occurred just before other major stock market crashes? Throughout 2014 and for the early stages of 2015, stocks have been on quite a tear. Even though the overall U.S. economy continues to be deeply troubled, we have seen the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq set record after record. But no bull market lasts forever – particularly one that has no relation to economic reality whatsoever.

Allied Nevada Gold Files For Bankruptcy Protection
Zero Hedge - The company blamed its deteriorating financial condition on the drop in gold and silver prices in recent years, an overleveraged capital structure, delays in a key expansion project, and currency swap exposure. Yes, this is that Allied Nevada whose stock price traded as high as $45 when gold hit its all time high of over $1,900 hours before the SNB imposed its first, and now failed, currency floor which translated into a market cap of just about $4.5 billion.

US May Run Out Of Oil Storage Space As Soon As June
Zero Hedge - Oil storage capacity in the US is now at 60% and is set to be completely exhausted in just three months. With storage at a premium, the contango breakeven trade will become increasingly more unprofitable and come June, each incremental barrel will have to be dumped on the market forcing prices lower.

Housing Market

The Great Middle Class Extinction: ''95% of New Homes Built for Rich or Poor''
Mac Slavo - “Since 2000, 95 percent of new households in King County have been either rich or poor. A mere 5 percent could be considered middle income.” That is a statistic reportedly true of Seattle – the heart of King County in Washington state – but which may well be a window into what is happening across much of the rest of the country.

Energy & Environment

NYC Bill to Pay Citizens to Snitch on Environmental Violations
Activist Post - New York City's Department of Environmental Protection currently fines people for leaving their vehicles idling longer than three minutes. Yes, really. Apparently warming up your car during the record cold winters is contributing to global warming and must be stopped. Much to the chagrin of power-thirsty bureaucrats, enforcement of this infraction only yielded $93,010 in revenue last year. So lawmakers are seeking to boost revenue by sharing fines with citizen snitches who provide the DEP with video evidence of idling vehicles.

Science & Technology

The CIA Helped Develop Planes that Scrape Cell Phone Data
The Verge - In November, the [Wall Street] Journal revealed the US Marshal’s secret program to locate specific fugitive through airplane equipped to mimic cell towers. Flying over an urban area, the planes can pinpoint the location of a single number amid a million or more phones. The new report shows the technology first originated with the CIA, which guided the initial deployment of the planes by the Marshal Service. Furthermore, Journal sources say continues to be used to locate intelligence targets overseas. If true, the report unveils a powerful weapon in US intelligence efforts abroad, but also reveals a troubling trend of foreign intelligence tools used for domestic law enforcement purposes.

Mini Exploding ''Bee'' Drones Developed to Support Army
Activist Post - The system, called 'Bee', can be configured to fit a number of the small-sized drones on to a military vehicle, such as the Rosomak (Polish for 'Wolverine') armored personnel carrier (APC).... The increased miniaturization and gadget-linked controls of these vehicles will likely only further increase the mental distance between assassin and assassinated as the war machine is converted to a full-on video game for any humans who remain at command ... until autonomous artificial intelligence systems can be fully enlisted to take it to the next level.

How DNA Is Turning Us Into a Nation of Suspects
The Rutherford Institute - [...] by accessing your DNA, the government will soon know everything else about you that they don’t already know: your family chart, your ancestry, what you look like, your health history, your inclination to follow orders or chart your own course, etc. Of course, none of these technologies are foolproof. Nor are they immune from tampering, hacking or user bias. Nevertheless, they have become a convenient tool in the hands of government agents to render null and void the Constitution’s requirements of privacy and its prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

Monsanto Is About To Escape All Regulation From The USDA
Natural Society - What’s an intentional mutation? Nothing more than a fancy technological phrase which describes a new way that biotech is getting around regulatory approval for genetically modified crops. Scientists have already created ‘designer monkeys’ by orchestrating precise genetic mutations. The same technology used to achieve this feat more than ten years ago is now being used by companies like Scott’s (of famed and failed GMO grass) to create genetically modified food without the oversight of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) or of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

7 Laws of Gardening: Time-Tested Tips For Growing a Successful Garden
Natural Blaze - We all have the best of intentions in the beginning of summer. We plan on spending the season growing a beautiful lush garden. As the summer drags on, avoiding the heat becomes the top priority. From the neglect, your garden suffers. The plants may not be thriving, there may be bug infestations, or root rot. Inevitably, if there are enough issues, you give up altogether and call it a summer. What you may not realize is there are laws that you must follow to ensure your plants have the best environment to thrive in. These gardening laws are essential in giving your plants a fighting chance at giving you a big harvest.

8 Garden Staples You Should Start Indoors Before Spring
Off the Grid News - If you happen to live in one of the cooler growing zones, you know that you have to make the most of the growing season while you can. Getting seeds started indoors is one way to ensure that certain vegetables get established and have plenty of time in your garden to give you a good harvest.

Health

This natural plant extract could cure rare brain tumors, study shows
(NaturalNews) A chemical extracted from milk thistle seeds may function as a non-invasive treatment for a rare hormonal condition caused by a brain tumor, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich and Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen and published in the journal Nature Medicine on February 9.

Foods and supplements that heal the thyroid
(NaturalNews) Fresh, raw, organic produce heals. Produce heals everything. Other than that, foods high in iodine and foods that are high in selenium are known to aid thyroid function. The thyroid gland requires iodine to function.... Selenium is required for the body to convert T3 into T4. Without enough selenium in the diet, the thyroid suffers. Seafood and meat are high in selenium, but there are also some vegan choices.

Foods that promote Candida overgrowth and lead to a leaky gut
(NaturalNews) Obviously, there's sugars. Most everyone who has studied Candida knows that any and all sugars feed yeast. On the other hand, all whole foods contain sugars, and every creature needs sugar to survive, including us. The trick is to eat the unrefined sugars in whole foods that have other nutrients bound to them, like fruit instead of fruit juices.

Illinois restricts birth freedom, criminalizes professional midwifery care
(NaturalNews) The state of Illinois is unkind to health freedom, especially for birth choice. In fact, there are very limited choices for giving birth in Illinois. An expectant mother is literally forced to give birth the way the state has mandated.

Tylenol maker to pay $25 mln for selling metal-contaminated drugs
(Reuters) - A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary pleaded guilty on Tuesday to selling liquid medicine contaminated with metal and agreed to pay $25 million to resolve the case, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Tuesday. The subsidiary, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, pleaded guilty to one federal criminal charge in the case.

School Secretly Vaccinates Teen Girl Without Consent
Adan Salazar - A mom in Chicago is furious after her teen daughter received several vaccinations at school without her consent. Michelle Miller says she believed a form she signed gave her 16-year-old daughter’s school permission to conduct nothing more than a routine sports physical. But student Noelle Miller ended up receiving multiple vaccinations, one for chicken pox, Hepatitis A, meningitis and the sexually transmitted disease HPV, none of which Noelle’s mom had consented to, save the chicken pox shot.

VIDEO: Specialty drug spending sees record increase
CNBC News - Total prescription drug spending rose 13 percent in 2014, the biggest increase since 2003, Express Scripts said in a report Tuesday. Spending on specialty medicines, such as those for inflammatory diseases, multiple sclerosis and cancer—as well as hepatitis C—rose an unprecedented 31 percent. Express Scripts, the largest pharmacy benefits manager in the U.S., has been at the forefront of a campaign against high drug prices for hepatitis C treatments such as Gilead Sciences' Sovaldi, which costs about $1,000 per day, or $84,000 for a 12-week course of treatment.
* Related: $1,000-a-pill Hepatitis drug in USA sells for less than $10 in Egypt

Coconut Oil Effective in Treating Aluminum Phosphide Poisoning
Health Impact News - The authors of the study, from the Department of Critical Care Medicine and Pulmonology at the Metro Heart Institute in Haryana, India, treated 7 cases of ALP poisoning with severe hemodynamic effects. The patients were treated with supportive measures including gastric lavage with diluted potassium permanganate, coconut oil and sodium-bicarbonate. Four out of 7 patients survived with these “supportive measures,” and all four patients who were given coconut oil survived.

Is This Cooking Mistake Causing Premature Aging?
Natural Society - The fat you choose to use in cooking can make the difference between a meal that supports health and a meal that throws off free radicals (thought to be a primary cause of the degeneration we refer to as aging). The higher the cooking heat, the more likely you are to be bombarded with free radicals, set off by breaks in fatty acid chains. There are only a few fats that can defy oxidation and its cousin, rancidity. What’s the determining factor? It’s the stability of the fatty acid chain.

Skip Meals To Live Longer And Lose Weight
Green Med Info - Studies in animals have shown that drastically restricting calories or fasting extends lifespan and improves age-related diseases. But it wasn't clear whether people could achieve the same results. After all, fasting on a long-term basis or restricting calories over a period of years would be a difficult lifestyle for most people to maintain. But researchers from the University of Florida have found an effective alternative to fasting or long-term caloric restriction. They call it the feast-or-famine diet. And they've found that for some people it mimics the same health and longevity benefits of traditional fasting.

Pepsi Wins Battle to Keep Adding Carcinogen to Your Soda
Natural Society - A federal judge recently dismissed a class action lawsuit over the carcinogenic additive, 4-methylimidazole (caramel coloring) found within soda beverages. Pepsi Wins Battle to Keep Adding Carcinogen to Your Soda A federal judge recently dismissed a class action lawsuit over the carcinogenic additive, 4-methylimidazole (caramel coloring) found within soda beverages.

San Francisco Wants Cigarette-Style Warning Labels on Soda Ads
Kit Daniels - The proposal, spearheaded by San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, would require the warning labels take up at least 20% of the ad space for sodas and other sweetened drinks which have more than 25 calories per 12 oz. The proposed warning label would state: WARNING: Drinking beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay. This is a message from the City and County of San Francisco.... If San Francisco is really that concerned about public health, the city would stop putting fluoride in the water, which a recent U.K. study linked to weight gain, fatigue and depression.

Idiocracy: Food Packaging Should Have Traffic Light Labels?
Natural Blaze - The main character in the movie Idiocracy goes to the hospital of the future and tries to tell the clerk about his problem. She apathetically scans her finger over a bunch of picture buttons that indicate a medical problem - she doesn't have to think. Imagine if everything was even further reduced from Idiocracy into nothing but basic colors and shapes. It would almost be like shopping with Big Bird as your guide.



Tuesday - March 10, 2015 - Today in History:

1776 - "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine was published.
1785 - Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France. He succeeded Benjamin Franklin.
1804 - The formal ceremonies transferring the Louisiana Purchase from France to the U.S. took place in St. Louis.
1848 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war with Mexico.
1864 - Ulysses S. Grant became commander of the Union armies in the U.S. Civil War.
1876 - Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful call with the telephone. He spoke the words "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."
1880 - The Salvation Army arrived in the U.S. from England.
1945 - American B-29 bombers attacked Tokyo, Japan, 100,000 were killed.
1953 - North Korean gunners at Wonsan fired upon the USS Missouri. The ship responded by firing 998 rounds at the enemy position.
1966 - The North Vietnamese captured a Green Beret camp at Ashau Valley.
1969 - James Earl Ray pled guilty in Memphis, TN, to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Ray later repudiated the guilty plea and maintained his innocence until his death in April of 1998.
1971 - The U.S. Senate approved an amendment to lower the voting age to 18.
1975 - The North Vietnamese Army attacked the South Vietnamese town of Ban Me Thout.
1980 - Iran's leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, lent his support to the militants holding American hostages in Tehran.
1982 - The U.S. banned Libyan oil imports due to their continued support of terrorism.
1994 - White House officials began testifying before a federal grand jury about the Whitewater controversy.
1998 - U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf began receiving the first vaccinations against anthrax.
2002 - The Associated Press reported that the Pentagon informed the U.S. Congress in January that it was making contingency plans for the possible use of nuclear weapons against countries that threaten the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction, including Iraq and North Korea.
2003 - North Korea test-fired a short-range missile. The event was one of several in a patter of unusual military maneuvers.
2004 - Teenage sniper Lee Boyd Malvo was sentenced in Chesapeake, Va., to life in prison.
2008 - New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer apologized after allegations surfaced that he had paid thousands of dollars for a high-end call girl, a scandal which eventually led to his resignation.

World News

Kuwaiti preacher, ISIS call for demolition of Egypt’s Sphinx, pyramids
RT - An Islamist preacher from Kuwait has called to destroy Egypt's Sphinx and pyramids, stating it is time for Muslims to erase the pharaohs' heritage. The alleged call comes as Islamic State jihadists ramp up their attacks against historic sites. Although the ancient monuments are not religious – but rather cultural and historic sites – they should still be "destroyed" by Muslims, putting an end to the worship of images, preacher Ibrahim Al Kandari said, according to Al-Watan daily.

US Declares Venezuela 'Extraordinary Threat to National Security'
Common Dreams - In the latest sign of rising tensions between the United States and Venezuela, President Barack Obama on Monday issued and signed an executive order declaring the Latin American country "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security" and ordering sanctions on seven state officials.

Venezuela To Start Fingerprinting Supermarket Shoppers
Zero Hedge - Venezuelans soon may need to have their fingerprints scanned before they can buy bread and other staples.... Unfortunately for the struggling Venezuelan population, the time has arrived and as AP reported over the weekend, Venezuela "will begin installing 20,000 fingerprint scanners at supermarkets nationwide in a bid to stamp out hoarding and panic buying" as of this moment.

In Great Britain, Powerful Pedophiles are Seemingly Everywhere and Totally Above the Law
Michael Krieger - A newspaper editor was handed startling evidence that Britain’s top law enforcement official knew there was a VIP pedophile network in Westminster, at the heart of the British government. What happened next in the summer of 1984 helps to explain how shocking allegations of rape and murder against some of the country’s most powerful men went unchecked for decades.

NATO seeks regime change in Russia - envoy
RT - The latest statements by the deputy head of NATO testify to the fact that the leaders of the bloc want to intervene in Russia’s internal politics, and are “dreaming of Russian Maidan.” This is the view of Russia’s permanent envoy to NATO.

Prime suspect says Nemtsov killed over 'negative comments on Muslims' – report
RT - Zaur Dadaev, who had reportedly confessed involvement in Nemtsov’s murder, said he organized the crime in revenge for the opposition leader’s “negative comments on Muslims and Islam,” according to Rosbalt’s source in law enforcement. Dadaev is one of five suspects arrested in connection with the politician’s assassination.

Putin signs law on ratification of $100 billion BRICS New Development Bank deal
RT - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law ratifying the deal establishing the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), according to a document published on Monday on Russia's official website for legal information. The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) was set up to challenge two major Western-led giants – the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. NDB's key role will be to serve as a pool of currency for infrastructure projects within a group of five countries with major emerging national economies - Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa.

The De-Dollarization Axis: China Completes SWIFT Alternative, May Launch As Soon As September
Zero Hedge - Following a year of threats that the west would kick Russia out of SWIFT, Moscow finally took the plunge and created its own international payment system alternative. And now, seeing how easy and fast it can be done, here comes China next with its own "China International Payment System" or CIPS, as one after another major global powers wave goodbye to a dollar-based, Washington-controlled (and NSA-supervised) international funds-transfer protocol. One that no longer relies on the US Dollar.

Over 100 US armored vehicles roll into Latvia, NATO flexes muscles in Europe (VIDEO)
RT - Latvia has confirmed more than 120 armored units, including tanks, have been delivered by the US. According to the Latvian Ministry of Defense, these include M1A2 Abrams tanks and M2A3 Bradley armored vehicles. The move to deploy yet more tanks and armored vehicles was welcomed by Latvian Minister of Defense Raymond Vejonis. "The presence of our allies (US and NATO) in Latvia is a confirmation of solidarity and security in the region," Vejonis said in a statement on Twitter.

90,000 Canadians sign petition to protest sale of 1mn liters of water for less than $2
RT - A province in Canada is to start charging industries for using its water. The problem is the fee is a paltry US$1.79 per million liters. This has prompted over 90,000 to sign a petition, angry that Canada is giving away its natural resource. he province of British Columbia on Canada’s Pacific coast is planning to introduce the legislation from January 2016, which will see companies charged US$1.79 (CAD$2.25) per million liters of water used. However, residents are dismayed that potential multi-national companies will pay next to nothing for the right to use the province’s water.

Ebola news

US to Deploy Chemical Brigade to Liberia to Combat Ebola says Pentagon
Sputnik News - According to the US Defense Department, the US would deploy its Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear brigade’s headquarters to Liberia to further combat the Ebola epidemic.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Michigan State Police Get ‘OK’ to Use Drones
Adan Salazar - Michigan State Police have received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to operate unmanned aerial vehicles throughout the state. On Monday, state police announced they received FAA authorization to use drones to assist local police units, making them the first law enforcement agency in the nation to obtain statewide approval.... The state had purchased their $158,000 Aeryon SkyRanger, equipped with advanced optics and touchscreen navigation, back in September 2013 with a grant from the US Department of Homeland Security.

SC National Guard Drills: Humvees Outfitted With Machine Guns for Door-to-Door 'Wellness Checks'
Brandon Turbeville - In yet another example of the growing trend of the process of acclimatization of the general public to an open military presence on American streets as well as greater cooperation between the US Military and civilian law enforcement, South Carolina was recently the scene of a statewide “emergency preparedness” drill that incorporated both of these aspects in a visible form.

“Liberty Cities” Spring Up in Texas
PanAm Post - New municipal jurisdictions are on the rise Texas, and their objective is to protect against the overreach and annexation of local government. The initiative’s lead proponent is the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), which on March 3 released a policy paper titled “The Liberty City: A New Concept for Self-Governance,” to espouse a streamlined model of incorporated cities.

COMMON CORE KIDNAPPING: Parent Calls 911 After Public School Won’t Release Kid From Test
Daily Caller - Supporters of Common Core have encountered a public relations nightmare recently thanks to technical glitches, student boycotts and a slew of irate parents who are refusing to allow their children to sit for standardized tests. However, last week marked the first time officials at a taxpayer-funded school have allegedly attempted to confine a student for a Common Core standardized test after her parent arrived on campus to remove the child from class.

Bank Records Reveal Saudi Elites Gave Millions to Boston Marathon Bombers’ Mosque
Breitbart - Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, currently on trial for terrorism charges from his role in the Boston Marathon bombings, prayed at the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) mosque in Cambridge, MA, which was founded by an Al Qaeda operative and funded with money from Saudi Arabia. According to Newsweek, the Tsarnaev brothers became radicalized after they started to attend this mosque.... Now, for the first time, our organization, Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) is making publicly available the names of wealthy Saudi and Gulf sources who together paid for over $8.6 million of the ISBCC mega-mosque’s $15.6 million price tag.

Gowdy: There Are Huge Gaps in E-mails Clintons Turned Over to Benghazi Committee
National Review - Representative Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.), chairman of the House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack, said that there are “gaps of months and months and months” in the e-mails that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has handed over to the committee so far… “If you think to that iconic picture of her on a C-17 flying to Libya, sunglasses on — she has her hand-held device in her hand — we have no e-mails from that day,” he said. “In fact we have no e-mails from that trip.”

Clinton Foundation Pushes “Wage Gap” Myth While Paying Female Execs 37% Less Than Men
Paul Joseph Watson - While the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation is promoting the myth of the “wage gap” in the United States, the Clinton’s own foundation pays its senior male executives 37 per cent more than their female counterparts. In a video promo for its ‘No Ceilings’ initiative, which was heavily promoted by YouTube and has since received well over 300,000 views, the Clinton Foundation enlists actress Cameron Diaz to claim, “In the U.S., women make just 78 cents to every man’s dollar.” This is a completely fraudulent and debunked assertion.

Texas Federal Court orders U.S. to explain possible violation of immigration injunction
Legal Insurrection - The Texas federal court that issued a temporary injunction halting Obama’s immigration executive action has just ordered the U.S. government to respond to allegations by the plaintiff States that the U.S. misrepresented to the Court the status of granting deportation waivers, and may thereby be in violation of the court’s temporary injunction… the Justice Department notified the judge that it has already implemented significant parts of the Expanded DACA program, and indeed that it has already granted expanded DACA protections and work permits to “approximately 100,000″ people.

U.S. Paid $125 Billion to Ineligible Recipients, a Jump of 18% in One Year
AllGov - The program with the most improper payments was Medicare, with nearly $60 billion paid out to undeserving recipients. The next largest category of improper payments, and the one with the highest error rate, is in the Earned Income Tax Credit program (EITC), with $17.7 billion and an error rate of 27.2%. This program is meant to reduce taxes for low- and moderate income Americans.

Over 2,000 Criminal Illegal Aliens Arrested in Nationwide Bust
Breitbart - Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the arrest of 2,059 convicted criminals, all criminal aliens, during a nationwide operation. “Operation Cross Check” was led by the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) group. 1,000 of the captured criminal aliens were targeted because they had felony convictions. Those range from voluntary manslaughter, child pornography, robbery, kidnapping and rape. Fifty-eight of those captured were known gang members, while eighty-nine were convicted sex offenders.

Election News

Report: Voters May View Hillary as Hypocrite on Women’s Rights Because Clinton Foundation Took Millions from Repressive Regimes
Breitbart - Clinton will headline two prominent events focused on women’s rights this week. One will commemorate her 1995 women’s rights speech in China and the other will reveal her foundation’s “No Ceilings” report, which is a progress report on women’s rights since that 1995 address. Unlike her last run for the presidency, Clinton is planning to go all-in on gender issues in her likely 2016 campaign. But her foundation’s acceptance of millions from Middle Eastern regimes with dismal women’s rights records may complicate Clinton’s efforts to cast herself as a champion for women’s rights.

Economy & Business

Economist Tells Congress: U.S. May Be in ‘Worse Fiscal Shape’ Than Greece
CNS News - “This declaration of national insolvency will, no doubt, shock those of you who use the officially reported federal debt as the measuring stick for what our country owes,” Kotlikoff told committee members who are considering President Obama’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2016.... “We have a $210 trillion fiscal gap at this point,” Kotlikoff told the senators, which amounts to 211 percent of the U.S.’ $18.2 trillion GDP, making it higher than Greece’s 175 percent debt-to-GDP ratio. The fiscal gap is “16 times larger than official U.S. debt, which indicates precisely how useless official debt is for understanding our nation’s true fiscal position,”... “Stated differently, the overall federal government is 58 percent underfinanced,” Kotlikoff testified.

VIDEO: Dr. Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk 3/9/15: Don’t Be Fooled by the Fed’s Anti-Audit Propaganda
Ron Paul - [...] Fed apologists continue to claim that the Audit the Fed bill will somehow limit the Federal Reserve’s independence. Yet neither Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen nor any other opponent of the audit bill has ever been able to identify any provision of the bill giving Congress power to dictate monetary policy. The only way this argument makes sense is if the simple act of increasing transparency somehow infringes on the Fed’s independence. This argument is also flawed since the Federal Reserve has never been independent from political pressure....

Nearly At ‘Full Employment’? 10 Reasons Why The Unemployment Numbers Are A Massive Lie
Economic Collapse - On Friday, we learned that the official “unemployment rate” has fallen to 5.5 percent. Since an unemployment rate of 5 percent is considered to be “full employment” by many economists, many in the mainstream media took this as a sign that the U.S. economy has almost fully “recovered” since the last recession. In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal, some Federal Reserve officials believe that “the U.S. economy is already at full employment“. But how can this possibly be?

Housing Market

Repeat Foreclosures Triple Since Crisis
Zero Hedge - According to Black Knight Financial, both new and repeat foreclosures hit a 12-month high during the first month of the year with repeats (i.e. the borrower was rescued but has since entered the foreclosure process again) jumping 11% M/M. More troubling is the trend in repeat foreclosures which accounted for only 15% of total foreclosures during the crisis but now make up a startling 51%.

Science & Technology

Google’s New Algorithm Will Only Show You ‘What They Say Is True’
Natural Society - The leading search engine has decided to change the criteria it uses for ranking content on the internet, so that content will no longer be ranked by popularity, as it has been since the beginning. The new ranking system will instead use what it has determined to be ‘truth’ as its ranking tool. This Orwellian move opens the door for Google to homogenize thought and become the global arbiters of truth, with the ability to send content it declares as ‘untrue’ into the dustbin of obscurity.

Survival/Preparedness

7 Survival ‘Forever Foods’ That Could Outlive You
Off the Grid News - Preparing for a crisis that includes a shortage of food takes work. You know your food storage should include a variety of foods. And that they should be rotated. But did you know that there are foods that actually could outlive you? If not, read on. Here are 7 foods that will last at least 30 years:

Health

FDA approves double the aluminum in new Gardasil vaccine
(NaturalHealth365) As the HPV vaccine controversy continues to smolder, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the green light to a new version of the controversial vaccine – this one containing an alarmingly high level of aluminum, a known neurotoxin. In its hurry to approve the vaccine, the FDA also bypassed a critical safety step.

Scientists suggest government should add psych meds to public drinking water
(NaturalNews) With a study currently underway in Scotland to assess whether lithium in drinking water is linked with lower suicide rates, we may soon see a renewed push to add yet another bioactive substance to public water supplies.

Water Fluoridation Promotes Thyroid Impairment, Study Warns
Dr. Mercola - Fluoride is a toxic drug linked with an array of potentially serious health problems. Most recently, research linking fluoridated water consumption to thyroid dysfunction received attention in both British and American media. Evidence also suggests it may contribute to or exacerbate behavioral problems such as ADHD, by way of pineal gland calcification.
* Related: 5 Reasons Why Fluoride in Water Doesn't Make Sense (Video)

High Fructose Corn Syrup Now Labeled as Fructose or HFCS-90
(NaturalNews) The Corn Refiners Association is now labeling high fructose corn syrup as fructose. Packing on products such as General Mills Vanilla Chex cereal now states the product contains no high fructose corn syrup, while the ingredients list contains the simple word, "fructose." This fructose is actually a manufactured sugar called HFCS-90, and is made up of 90% pure fructose. High fructose corn syrup, or HFCS, contains 42% or 55 percent fructose. Health issues relating to free fructose include diabetes, leaky gut syndrome, and liver failure.

Raw Milk and the Raw Deal
Dr. Mercola - An entire section of the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) website is devoted to warning Americans about the “dangers” of raw milk. There it states that more than 1,500 people in the US became sick from raw milk from 1993 to 2006. This is just over 115 people per year, on average… in a country were 9 million people get sick from foodborne illness annually. Is it possible to get sick from drinking raw milk?

Cranberries are natural antibiotic, source of antioxidants
(NaturalNews) One of only three commercially grown fruits native to the United States, cranberries offer a multitude of health benefits that can help ward off cancer, heart disease, diabetes and bacterial infections.

Healing from Vaccine Injuries through Homeopathy
Green Med Info - While there is much information on the dangers of vaccines, there is precious little on how to be healed from them. Too many give up hope because all they know is the allopathic system which denies their injuries, not realizing that there is hope to be healed through homeopathic treatments.

Exciting: Study Reveals How Sleep Removes Toxic Waste from the Brain
Natural Society - Recently, researchers have found that sleeping actually helps detoxify the brain, potentially offering clues into Alzheimer’s disease.... The study, published in the journal Science, reveals that your brain has a unique method of removing toxic waste through ‘the glymphatic system’. Even more interesting, it seems that brain cells shrink by about 60% during sleep, allowing for waste to be removed more easily.

Eating This Food Daily Linked to 20% Cut in Health-Related Deaths
Natural Society - A recent study has found that consuming more nuts was associated with decreased overall and cardiovascular disease mortality – associated with death rates cut by as much as a fifth.
 


Monday - March 9, 2015 - Today in History:

1788 - Connecticut became the 5th state to join the United States.
1820 - The U.S. Congress passed the Land Act that paved the way for westward expansion of North America.
1832 - Abraham Lincoln announced that he would run for a political office for the first time. He was unsuccessful in his run for a seat in the Illinois state legislature.
1860 - The first Japanese ambassador to the U.S. was appointed.
1863 - General Ulysses Grant was appointed commander-in-chief of the Union forces.
1905 - In Manchuria, Japanese troops surrounded 200,000 Russian troops that were retreating from Mudken.
1906 - In the Philippines, fifteen Americans and 600 Moros were killed in the last two days of fighting.
1945 - During World War II, U.S. B-29 bombers launched incendiary bomb attacks against Japan.
1957 - Egyptian leader Nasser barred U.N. plans to share the tolls for the use of the Suez Canal.
1964 - Production began on the first Ford Mustang.
1965 - The first U.S. combat troops arrived in South Vietnam.
1967 - Svetlana Alliluyeva, Josef Stalin's daughter defected to the United States.
1975 - Work began on the Alaskan oil pipeline.
1977 - About a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington, DC. They killed one person and took more than 130 hostages. The siege ended two days later.
1983 - The official Soviet news agency TASS says that U.S. President Reagan is full of "bellicose lunatic anti-communism."
1989 - In the U.S., a strike forced Eastern Airlines into bankruptcy.
1989 - In the U.S., President George H.W. Bush urged for a mandatory death penalty in drug-related killings.
1993 - Rodney King testified at the federal trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused of violating his civil rights. (California)
2000 - In Norway, the coalition government of Kjell Magne Bondevik resigned as a result of an environmental dispute.

World News

US freezes $640mn in sanctioned Russian bank assets
RT - The US has frozen accounts of Russian banks SMP, Rossiya and its subsidiary Sobinbank worth in total $640 million, as part of America’s escalating sanctions war against Russia over its policy in Ukraine. Russian assets have been frozen in dozens of US financial institutions such as Citibank, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, says the Wall Street Journal referring to US Treasury data.

Saudi Arabia becomes world’s top arms importer
RT - Saudi Arabia has become the world’s biggest importer of weapons and defensive systems, overtaking the previous record holder, India, according to a new report which examined the arms trade across 65 countries last year. Data revealed by the IHS Jane 360 in its Global Defence Trade Report, shows that Saudi Arabia spent over $6.4 billion on defense purchases in 2014, dislodging India from top spot. India’s spending stood at $5.57 billion, placing it second.

Greece "Risks Bankruptcy" As Europe Rejects Varoufakis Payment Plan; Another Referendum Fiasco Ensues
Zero Hedge - … “It’s quite hilarious, if it were not so tragic, that this is what a government in an industrialised country comes up with,” said one eurozone official involved in the talks. There will be little laughter in cash-strapped Greece, however, if the Sunday Times is correct in its report that the "Eurogroup finance ministers are to reject radical reform proposals from Greece at a meeting in Brussels tomorrow."… As the Times concluded, Greece is hoping for a favorable response because unless the cash injection is approved, Greece faces a "full-scale default."

Malaysian ATC Supervisor Reportedly Slept on Night of MH370 Disappearance
Sputnik News - According to conversation transcripts, the air traffic control supervisor at the Kuala Lumpur airport was asleep on the night of the flight's traceless disappearance.

ISIS Attacks Third Ancient Archaeological Site in Iraq
Breitbart - Adel Shirshab, the country’s tourism and antiquities minister, told The Associated Press there are concerns the militants will remove artifacts and damage the site, located 15 kilometers (9 miles) northeast of Mosul. Saeed Mamuzini, a Kurdish official from Mosul, told the AP that the militants had already begun demolishing the Khorsabad site on Sunday, citing multiple witnesses.

'China, Russia vow mutual support'
Press TV - China and Russia will continue to support each other and jointly uphold international peace as both countries are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says…Furthermore, Wang said China and Russia will continue to improve bilateral cooperation in various sectors including financial, oil and gas, as well as nuclear power.

Germany Has Had Enough With US Neocons: Berlin "Stunned" At US Desire For War In Ukraine
Zero Hedge - As Der Spiegel reports, while US President Obama 'supports' Chancellor Merkel's efforts at finding a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis, hawks in Washington seem determined to torpedo Berlin's approach. And NATO's top commander in Europe hasn't been helping either with sources in the Chancellery have referred to Breedlove's comments as "dangerous propaganda."

ExxonMobil boosts Russian oil assets by 450% in 2014, despite sanctions
RT - Exxon Mobil Corp. has continued to buy rights to develop Russian oil deposits despite sanctions, increasing the area from 11.4 million acres to 63.7 million acres in 2014. It’s an area larger than the UK. In the US the oil major owns the rights to develop 14.6 million acres, and until last year was the company’s biggest single asset. Although Exxon had to suspend development of the Arctic shelf in October due to the sanctions, the company continued to stake rights to areas of Russia that can bring in tens of billions of barrels in the coming decades.

Up to 30,000 Fill the Streets of Tel Aviv in Anti-Netanyahu Rally
Michael Krieger - Only a few days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from his much publicized United States trip, during which he was celebrated and drooled over by America’s top warmongers, a large protest against him erupted in the nation’s section largest city, Tel Aviv. Just like any other country, Israel is dealing with plenty of very important domestics issues, and people are publicly questioning whether Netanyahu’s obsession with militancy, and his shameless political stunt in from of the U.S. Congress just weeks before elections back home, make his leadership questionable.
* Related: Netanyahu govt more 'frightening' than all Israel enemies, ex-Mossad chief tells crowds

MH370: Battery for locator tracker on board Malaysian Airlines plane expired a year before plane went missing
The Independent - A comprehensive report into the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has revealed that the battery for the underwater locator beacon expired more than a year before the plane vanished. The news comes on the first anniversary of the plane’s disappearance – between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing - as the passengers' families remain in limbo, still waiting for answers from the Malaysian authorities.

Ebola news

Liberia is Close to Be Declared Ebola-Free
Sputnik News - Good news is coming from Liberia, as the country may soon be declared Ebola-free. To mark this, the government in Monrovia decided to dismantle a crematorium and remove drums containing the ashes of over 3,000 Ebola victims.

Vaccine - Not Ebola - Made Doctor Sick, Study Finds
NBC News - Just 12 hours after he got an experimental Ebola vaccine, and just two days after he stuck himself with a needle while caring for Ebola patients in September, Dr. Lewis Rubinson started getting sick. By then, Rubinson was aboard a jet, being evacuated from Sierra Leone to the United States. He wasn't sure if he was infected with Ebola or if the vaccine was causing a reaction. He was en route to strict isolation at the National Institutes of Health outside Washington D.C. Months later, it's fairly clear the vaccine caused the reaction..."The patient developed malaise, nausea and fever 12 hours after the vaccination while on the transport jet," Dr. Mark Mulligan of Emory University and colleagues wrote in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Thursday.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

American Drone Operators Are Quitting in Record Numbers
The Nation - The Air Force explains the departure of these drone pilots in the simplest of terms. They are leaving because they are overworked. The pilots themselves say that it’s humiliating to be scorned by their Air Force colleagues as second-class citizens. Some have also come forward to claim that the horrors of war, seen up close on video screens, day in, day out, are inducing an unprecedented, long-distance version of post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).

SWAT Team Shows Up To Elementary School to Promote Police State USA
Free Thought Project - The officers weren’t there to raid the school or arrest anyone, but they certainly looked like they were going to so. The SWAT officers were all carrying high-powered weapons and wearing paramilitary gear as if they were about to raid a terrorist organization. The police proudly bragged about the event on their Facebook page, posting a number of pictures with fully-clad SWAT members standing on a stage in front of small children.

American flag banned by Calif. university students to create ‘inclusive’ atmosphere
Washington Times - The student government at the University of California, Irvine, voted Tuesday to remove all American flags from one of their rooms, arguing that the flag could be considered offensive and anti-inclusive. The bill — which passed with six yays, four nays and two abstaining – would remove all flags, including the Stars and Stripes, from the lobby of the building that houses the undergraduate governing body, known as the Associated Students of University of California, Irvine (ASUCI).
* Related: California Student Group Vetoes Ban of Flag From Lobby

US citizens forced to wait months for DMV appointments as illegal aliens get priority
(NaturalNews) The California DMV says it's trying to work through the new changes, which are flooding the system with untold millions of illegal immigrants who aren't even living legally in the state. But the situation is still a nightmare for people living in California legally, some of whom are now experiencing extreme difficulties with even making an appointment at the DMV several months before their licenses expire.

Double Standard for Espionage Act as Petraeus Goes Free while Kiriakou and Sterling go to Prison
AllGov - Why is it that lower-level officers are sent to prison for shedding light on CIA torture and missteps while the former director is getting off with a slap on the wrist?.. CIA employees have no doubt taken note of the disparity in sentences and will be less likely to share information about agency abuses with the media in the future. Which is probably what the Justice Department had in mind all along.

VIDEO: Judge Napolitano: Hillary Could Potentially Face Jail Time if Charged Over Emails
Liberty Crier - During this interview, America’s Newsroom shows a clip with Jonathan Turley, George Washington University Law Professor. He says: “The idea that a cabinet member would create her own system is pretty extraordinary and it’s also pretty dangerous. This is the type of thing that sends most security officers into orbit… this certainly runs against the grain of the federal law. It’s much more difficult to comply with those laws when you’re creating your own system and allowing your own people to manage it.”

VIDEO: Gold Mine: Hillary Clinton’s Brother Granted Super-Rare Mining Permit from Haiti After State Dept. Sent Country Billions
Breitbart - The tiny North Carolina company, VCS Mining, also included on its board Bill Clinton’s co-chair of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), former Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive. VCS’s coveted gold mining exploitation permit was apparently such a sweetheart deal that it outraged the Haitian senate, since royalties to be paid to the Haitian government were only 2.5%, a sum mining experts say is at least half the standard rate.

Activists rally in Chicago to close ‘black site,’ end ‘disappearing’ of civilians
RT - Protesters in Chicago have held a rally to demand the police shut down a formerly abandoned warehouse that is reportedly being used to interrogate suspected criminals without recourse to legal representation. The detention facility, which was first brought to public attention in a report by the Guardian in February, is a plain warehouse located on Chicago’s west side known as Homan Square, which has“long been the scene of secretive work by special police units,” the paper revealed.

Common AR-15 Green Tip Ammunition Already Banned in New ATF Regulation Guide
Town Hall - The same day the proposal was released, on a Friday of a three day holiday weekend, ATF opened up a shortened 30-day period for the public to submit comments about the new regulation. But it turns out, ATF has been working on a ban of AR-15 "green-tip" ammunition for quite some time and has already issued the ban in its new, 2014 Regulation Guide. For reference, ATF Regulation Guides come out approximately every ten years.

VIDEO: Couple denied role as foster parents over permits to carry guns
Brian and Valerie Wilson, of Las Vegas, told “Fox & Friends” Sunday that they have always planned to become foster parents and eventually adopt, but have been denied permission to do so because of a state regulation that prohibits the carrying of loaded weapons with foster children.

California Cops Who Blew Whistle on Ticket Quotas Forced to Undergo Counseling
Activist Post - Six police officers from Whittier, California are suing the city after being punished for protesting ticket quotas. The officers say they complained repeatedly within the department and shortly after were met with discrimination. They say their “careers have been materially and adversely affected, and irreparably harmed” by the city.... The officers allege they were reprimanded by being ordered to undergo counseling and that they encountered increased scrutiny, “disparaging” remarks, and faced unwarranted transfers.

Veteran News

Seven Cops and Lawyers Apparently ‘Lied’ to Put This Man in Jail. He Was Only Saved by the Video You’re About to See
The Blaze - Douglas Dendinger is a 47-year-old disabled Army veteran who found himself the target of an apparent police conspiracy to put him away for life — all because he handed a court summons to a cop, WWL-TV reported.He stepped up to act as process server in August 2012 for a brutality lawsuit filed by his nephew. Handing a summons to Chad Cassard as the former police officer exited the courthouse in Washington Parish, Louisiana, Dendinger found himself verbally attacked by the swarm of cops and lawyers nearby.

Economy & Business

Another Dubious Jobs Report Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts…In other words, the unemployment rate dropped because the labor force shrunk. If the economy was in recovery, the labor force would be growing and the labor force participation rate would be rising. The 295,000 claimed new jobs are highly suspect. For example, the report claims 32,000 new retail jobs, but the Census Bureau reports that retail sales declined in December and January. Why would retailers experiencing declining sales hire more employees? Construction spending declined 1.1% in January, but the payroll jobs report says 29,000 construction jobs were added in February.

Energy & Environment

Stop Chemtrail Spraying Petition to White House Needs Signatures
Activist Post - The aerosol spraying petition, “Immediately stop the aerosol spraying of our nation's skies,” has only 380 signatures as of March 6th, and needs 99,620 signatures by March 19, 2015 in order to get the president’s attention. Here’s what that petition says...

California Water Rates To Skyrocket 30% This Year
GovtSlaves - Three of the largest Bay Area water agencies — the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the East Bay Municipal Utility District and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which runs the Hetch Hetchy system — all are considering water rate hikes of up to 30 percent this year. Because they have sold less water, the agencies have lost tens millions of dollars in revenues.

Science & Technology

CIA to create 10 new centers, expand focus on digital espionage
The Washington Post - The CIA embarked on a sweeping restructuring Friday that will bring an end to divisions that have been in place for decades, create 10 new centers that team analysts with operators, and significantly expand the agency's focus on digital espionage...The CIA will also create a new directorate focused exclusively on exploiting advances in computer technology and communications. The Directorate of Digital Innovation will rank alongside the agency's operations and analysis branches, and be responsible for missions ranging from cyber-espionage to the security of the CIA's internal email.

Patent details Google’s ideas for smart home doorknobs, doorbells, wall switches, and more
VentureBeat - Google clearly has big ambitions for its Internet-connected Nest and Dropcam hardware. A new patent shows how these gadgets — and a host of other devices — could be tied together into the smart home of the future.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

Nearly 15,000 MN turkeys die in avian flu episode
KARE 11 - A strain of lethal avian flu is now being blamed for the deaths of nearly 15,000 turkeys in Pope County, and officials are moving quickly in an attempt to keep it in check. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture said Thursday that only workers handling the birds, all from the same commercial flock, are at risk of infection.... The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the finding in Pope County, in western Minnesota, is the first appearance of the highly pathogenic H5N2 strain in the Mississippi flyway.

VIDEO: Company offers rental chickens for would-be farmers on the fence
KTVB - The do-it-yourself campaign is nothing new, but what if you could test out the idea first? One local company is allowing you to do just that. Idaho Hens is giving people the opportunity to test the waters of backyard farming. The company allows you to rent chickens. They provide the hens and you get to keep the eggs....

A Phenomenally Healthy and Rewarding Way to Cut Your Grocery Bill (Video)
Dr. Mercola - Want to eat healthy, organic foods and save money at the same time? Nearly anyone can do it, and it doesn't take much time or space. Follow these simple guidelines, rev up your creativity, and get ready to be rewarded in brand-new ways.... Watch in amazement as Geoff Lawton transforms an ordinary yard into a maximally productive, sustainable garden landscape.

Survival/Preparedness

Prepare for the coming global depression with these 11 tips
(NaturalNews) Natural News has committed to keeping readers informed about economic conditions both in the United States and the developed world, because there is so much going on that could affect the financial stability of billions of people.

Health

Avoid hypothyroidism by avoiding the causes
(NaturalNews) There are many pathways available for the regulation of the production and conversion of thyroid hormones. Consequently, there are a lot of opportunities for things to go wrong. A healthy thyroid relies on many factors, including, but not limited to, a healthy endocrine system, stable hormone levels, healthy and balanced gut flora, a healthy liver, properly functioning adrenals, healthy kidneys, and clean, healthy blood.

Mustard, Cayenne Pepper and Green Tea Boost Your Metabolism for Weight Loss
(NaturalNews) Metabolism refers to the physical and chemical processes that synthesis energy. These chemical reactions take place within the cells with help from enzymes and hormones.

Your Microbiome May Be Key Factor Determining Your Health and Longevity
Dr. Mercola - Feeding health-promoting gut bacteria with a healthy diet, avoiding hospitals (which are hotbeds for drug-resistant bacteria), and boycotting processed foods and animal foods raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs)—both of which tend to have an adverse effect on your microbiome—may be keystone strategies for longevity.

Vitamin D Can Save You from Diabetes and Dementia
Dr. Mercola - One of the simplest health steps is also one of the most profound: optimize your vitamin D levels to lower your risk of diabetes and related dementia.

Telling family stories to coma patients helps them regain consciousness faster, study says
(NaturalNews) There is a strikingly powerful and somewhat mysterious human and familial element involved in the healing process that is often ignored by modern medicine. This is clearly demonstrated in a new study published in the journal Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, which found that coma patients whose family members read them familiar stories while unconscious regained awareness significantly faster than patients who simply recovered on their own.

The CDC's Role in Undoing Vaccine Exemptions: the NACCHO Front Group
Green Med Info - NACCHO? It sounds like a bad acronym from an Austin Powers movie. But it is actually one of the most powerful anti-vaccine choice front groups in the country, whose primary funder appears to be the CDC.

VIDEO: Flu Shot 82% Ineffective!
Experimental Vaccines - Under any other circumstances 18% effective would be considered disastrous results. The CDC confirms that the seasonal flu vaccine is only effective at that pathetic rate for the dominant strain, and it's even lower than that for children 2-8 years old - 15%. That's a literal FAIL from Big Pharma. And yet the CDC still reaffirms their recommendation for annual vaccination. The theory being that, hey, 18% is "better" than zero. Who could argue with such airtight logic?

How Homeopathy is Healing Autism
Health Impact News - We know that autism can be healed, because we have seen the evidence of recovered lives. We know how autistic children feel, because recovered autistic children have been able to tell us how it felt. They have been able to describe their experiences after their lives were restored to normal through homeopathy.

BPA harms dental enamel in young animals, mimicking human tooth defect
Natural Blaze - A tooth enamel abnormality in children, molar incisor hypomineralization (MIH), may result from exposure to the industrial chemical bisphenol A (BPA), authors of a new study conclude after finding similar damage to the dental enamel of rats that received BPA. The study results will be presented Friday at the Endocrine Society's 97th annual meeting in San Diego.

Just Losing 30 Minutes of Daily Sleep Raises Weight and Diabetes Risk
Natural Blaze - Losing as little as 30 minutes of sleep per day on weekdays can have long-term consequences for body weight and metabolism, a new study finds.... "While previous studies have shown that short sleep duration is associated with obesity and diabetes, we found that as little as 30 minutes a day sleep debt can have significant effects on obesity and insulin resistance at follow up," said lead study author Professor Shahrad Taheri, MBBS, PhD, professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, in Doha. "This reinforces earlier observations that sleep loss is additive and can have metabolic consequences."

Chicago Lurie Children's Hospital Takes Baby Away From Family for Seeking a Second Opinion
Health Impact News - When Lakisha Tanna’s infant grandson was transferred to Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, she thought that he was in the best place he could be to receive the care that he needed for his medical condition. She never dreamed that this choice would eventually result in her adorable grandchild being what she terms “medically kidnapped” more than a year later. On March 12, the family faces a hearing to determine whether Malik, now 2 1/2, will be able to return home to his grandparents who love him, or forever become a ward of the state of Illinois.

Pet News

Does YOUR Pet's Food Contain This Toxic Synthetic Vitamin?
Dr. Becker - Menadione, which is a synthetic form of vitamin K, is a widely used ingredient in pet food. Not only does menadione lack many of the important properties of natural vitamin K (derived from whole foods), it has also been identified as a liver toxin. Even in very small amounts, ingestion of menadione on a daily basis over a dog’s or cat’s lifetime is cause for concern. Menadione can be found in all types of pet food, including commercial raw diets, so it’s important for pet guardians to check labels carefully for the presence of this synthetic nutrient.
 


Friday - March 6, 2015 - Today in History:

1820 - The Missouri Compromise was enacted by the U.S. Congress and signed by U.S. President James Monroe. The act admitted Missouri into the Union as a slave state, but prohibited slavery in the rest of the northern Louisiana Purchase territory.
1836 - The 13-day siege of the Alamo by Santa Anna and his army ended. The Mexican army of three thousand men defeated the 189 Texas volunteers.
1886 - "The Nightingale" was first published. It was the first magazine for nurses.
1899 - Aspirin was patented by German researchers Felix Hoffman and Hermann Dreser.
1944 - During World War II, U.S. heavy bombers began the first American raid on Berlin. Allied planes dropped 2000 tons of bombs.
1947 - The first air-conditioned naval ship, "The Newport News," was launched from Newport News, VA.
1960 - The United States announced that it would send 3,500 troops to Vietnam.
1967 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his plan to establish a draft lottery.
1975 - Iran and Iraq announced that they had settled their border dispute.
1980 - Islamic militants in Tehran said that they would turn over American hostages to the Revolutionary Council.
1981 - U.S. President Reagan announced a plan to cut 37,000 federal jobs.
1991 - In Paris, five men were jailed for plotting to smuggle Libyan arms to the Irish Republican Army.
1997 - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II launched the first official royal Web site.
2007 - Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted of lying and obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

World News

ISIS Set Iraqi Oil Fields On Fire, Stalls Military Advance
Zero Hedge - Thick black smoke billowing from oil wells northeast of the city of Tikrit is obstructing Shi'ite militiamen and Iraqi soldiers attempts to drive ISIS from the Sunni Muslim city after militants set them on fire. Reuters reports a witness and a military source said Islamic State fighters ignited the fire at the Ajil oil field to shield themselves from attack by Iraqi military helicopters. As we noted previously, the battle for Tikrit is key as it will determine whether and how fast the Iraqi forces can advance further north and attempt to win back Mosul, the biggest city under Islamic State rule.

ISIL Receiving Up to $1 Billion Annually From Afghan Heroin
Sputnik - The Islamic State terrorist organization is receiving upwards to $1 billion in profits annually for deliveries of Afghan heroin, the head of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service said Friday.“According to our figures, the ISIL is receiving up to $1 billion annually for delivering Afghan heroin,” Viktor Ivanov said.

'War crime': ISIS bulldozes ancient Assyrian city in Iraq
RT - Islamic state extremists have ‘bulldozed’ an ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq near Mosul with heavy military vehicles, the country’s authorities said. This is the latest in the series of ISIS attacks against Iraqi heritage.

French delete evidence US carrier was 'sunk' by sub in drill
RT - A major vulnerability that allowed French submarine to “sink” aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and most of its escort during drills was apparently revealed by the French Navy and Defense Ministry in blogposts that were quickly wiped out.... The aim of the military games off the coast of Florida which began in mid-February were meant to test the newly upgraded carrier, which had undergone a four year, $2.6 billion overhaul, ahead of the Strike Group's deployment. The drills involved practicing scenarios of hostile ship boarding, submarine attacks, and enemy ships battles.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad: “The West has no Desire to Combat Terrorism”. West Channels “Money and Armaments” to ISIS
Global Research - President Bashar al-Assad gave an interview to Portuguese State Television, RTP, the following is the full text...

‘Military pressure’ may be needed to oust Syrian President – John Kerry
RT - US Secretary of State John Kerry has declared that military pressure may be needed to oust Syria’s President Bashar Assad. It comes as knowledge has emerged that the US, along with Turkey, has started training Syrian rebels.

Rebranding: US May Look to al-Qaeda Faction as New 'Moderate' Allies in Syria
Jason Ditz - Al-Qaeda’s Syria faction, Jabhat al-Nusra, is being courted by Qatar to publicly distance itself from al-Qaeda’s parent leadership as a way to get around international bans on funding al-Qaeda. Ideologically, Nusra is a preposterously non-moderate faction, but the US has managed to keep from publicly going after the group, claiming airstrikes which were on Nusra members were really aimed at a faction called Khorasan, a term the US invented themselves.

Japan Now Spends 43% Of Tax Revenue To Fund Interest On Debt
Zero Hedge - Yet large Japanese businesses have dutifully continued to hold Japanese government bonds as part of their obligation to make sure that the government doesn’t look bad… This, however, is starting to change. Businesses, entrepreneurs, and investors are all moving money out of Japan and into Singapore. Even Japanese banks are aggressively expanding, following the money out of their own country… When the powder keg goes off that sets the global financial system ablaze, it will most likely be in Japan where the match is lit.

Personal drone registration will become necessary, U.K. Lords say
Gigaom - A U.K House of Lords committee has recommended that, in the long term, people operating drones for leisure may need to register them so their owners can be traced.

Brazilian Farmers Occupy and Cancel Approval Meeting for GMO Trees
Sustainable Pulse - 300 farmers have taken over the building where Brazil’s GMO regulator CTNBio was meeting Thursday to decide about whether to approve GE eucalyptus trees. The meeting was cancelled. Also Thursday, 1,000 women took over operations of FuturaGene across Brazil. The action included the destruction of all GE eucalyptus seedlings. About 1,000 women of the MST occupied the Suzano company (parent corporation to GE tree company FuturaGene) in Itapetininga, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Pentagon announces U-turn on use of depleted uranium in Iraq and Syria
ICBUW - The Pentagon has announced that depleted uranium (DU) munitions have not, and will not, be used by US aircraft in the conflict against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The policy U-turn contrasts with statements made over previous months, where Pentagon officials claimed that DU would be used if needed; the decision reflects a growing stigmatisation of the controversial weapons.

How Hillary Clinton Exposed Her Emails To Foreign Spies... In Order To Hide Them From The American Public
Techdirt - …there are two separate key issues here, neither of which look good for Clinton. First, is the security question…Hillary's private email address was actually revealed a few years ago when the hacker "Guccifer" revealed the inbox of former Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal. Though, we do know that it was secure from one thing: FOIA requests. That is the second of the two big issues raised by this whole thing. By using her own email setup, she was clearly able to hide important documents from FOIA requests.

VIDEO: Judge Napolitano: Hillary Clinton Unlikely To Face Same Scrutiny As Petraeus Plea Deal
Liberty Crier - Fox News senior judicial correspondent Judge Andrew Napolitano said that the scandal surrounding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s exclusive use of a private email during her tenure went beyond a civil matter, and had the potential to be a criminal matter....

New Snowden Archive Offers Public Access to Surveillance Documents
Activist Post - Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) has announced the launch of the Snowden Archive, a comprehensive database of all of the documents published to date from the Snowden leak. Created in partnership with the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, the Archive is the world’s first fully indexed and searchable collection of publicly released Snowden documents.

Top 10 Points from Netanyahu’s Speech to Congress Proving He’s Mad
21st Century Wire says… The speech Netanyahu gave to the U.S. Congress today is nothing less than the case for war against Iran. Voters should not, under any circumstances, allow this to hold any weight at all with policy makers – as they did with Iraq in 2003. Here’s our rundown of the Top 10 points from his speech proving that Netanyahu has lost the plot…

Mainstream Media Discovers What Created ISIS - Global Warming!
Brandon Turbeville - After five years of intense fighting and destabilization raging across Syria, Western mainstream press has finally discovered the true cause of the so-called “civil war.” It turns out that all of the analysts in the alternative media suggesting that the situation in Syria was the result of a NATO destabilization campaign and foreign-backed invasion of terrorists in the form of al-Nusra, al-Qaeda, and ISIS were wrong. In fact, even those mainstream analysts who have suggested that the foreign invasion was actually a legitimate rebellion were apparently mistaken. Thankfully, the mainstream press has discovered the true cause of the Syrian crisis – global warming. No, this is not a joke.

Demands to Shut Down Homan Square Grow, 1,500 Expected to Protest in Chicago Saturday
Activist Post - Nationwide opposition to the Chicago Police’s secret detention facility known as Homan Square is growing rapidly.... Several hundred concerned residents of Chicago brought Homan Square to a standstill over the weekend, and as many as 1,500 or more are expected to shut it down this coming Saturday. The event will take place at Homan Square at 12:00 pm CST.

Double, Double, Lies and Trouble: US Police Report Just 50% of People Killed
Sputnik News - Police killed many more people than had been previously reported by the US government, so says a new report which finds that an average of 545 people were left out of crime statistics each year for the past ten years.... Another problem with the FBI numbers is that they are based on voluntary submissions by local law enforcement. Since law enforcement agencies are not required to submit the data, many do not for officer-involved shootings. The underreporting is pretty significant, says the report. In one case the data was 124% off what it should be, while another year was 167% off.

Congressional Opposition to AR-15 Ammo Ban Grows
Breitbart - On March 4, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA-6th Dist.) and 237 other lawmakers signed and sent a letter to the ATF expressing their opposition to the proposed M855 ammo ban. Among the stated reasons for their opposition, lawmakers cited that the ban would “interfere with Second Amendment rights” by disrupting the ammunition market far beyond M855 sales and/or restrictions.

NYPD commissioner blames legal marijuana in Colorado for increase in New York shootings
Washington Post - I’m not exactly sure by what Rube Goldbergian chain of events Bratton thinks legalization in Colorado and Washington is causing homicides in New York City, but it’s clear that he thinks there’s a connection. Of course, if we want a more direct examination of what effect legal pot might have on homicide, we can just look at the cities where it’s legal. Here’s what we know: Homicides dropped 24 percent in Denver last year, the first full year of legalization in Colorado. Robberies were down 3 percent. Burglary was down 9.5 percent.

Veteran News

Simple Way to Reduce Stress for Children of Deployed Military Personnel
Dr. Becker - The study researchers, who are affiliated with the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, set out to discover whether some of the specific stressors experienced by military families could be alleviated through interaction with animals. According to Megan Mueller, Ph.D., a developmental psychologist and co-author of the study:“We found that kids with deployed parents who had developed a deep bond with a family pet reported having better coping strategies in dealing with the stress than those without such ties to a companion animal.”

Economy & Business

NAFTA Has Practically Expelled Our Best Companies
Economy In Crisis - Since the passage of NAFTA, the American economy, which was already stagnating, has gone downhill at an increasing clip. When we examine the details of the “free trade” agreement, it is easy to see why it has caused so much devastation.... American workers are now forced to compete directly with Mexican workers who often make just over $4 per hour. Their American counterparts make $18 per hour. Why would any manufacturer want to produce here in the U.S. when the same product can be produced right across the border in Mexico for a small fraction of the cost and then shipped back to us duty- and restriction-free?

U.S. Companies Are Stashing $2.1 Trillion Overseas to Avoid Taxes
Bloomberg - Eight of the biggest U.S. technology companies added a combined $69 billion to their stockpiled offshore profits over the past year, even as some corporations in other industries felt pressure to bring cash back home. Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc., Google Inc. and five other tech firms now account for more than a fifth of the $2.10 trillion in profits that U.S. companies are holding overseas, according to a Bloomberg News review of the securities filings of 304 corporations.

Investment expert warns of financial collapse this year, says to invest in a secure, rural farm
(NaturalNews) What's the most valuable commodity you can have in your investment portfolio? Cash money? Gold? A "safe" 401K? Sure, all of those are good, numerous financial experts have said, noting that diversifying one's portfolio - not keeping all of your financial eggs in one basket -- is always a good idea.

Goldman Warns Snow May Leads To Lower Jobs Number, But Snowstorms Will Result In Higher Wages
Zero Hedge - Of course, such things as snowfall in the recent past should make Wall Street's economists - all supposedly smart, intelligent, 7-figure paid creatures - factor that into their upcoming forecasts and adjust these accordingly. Paradoxically, they never did and instead used the weather as an excuse for their gross incompetence at forecasting the future (as they are doing again this year)… And sure enough, it released a note prewarning that tomorrow's jobs data will likely be weaker than the consensus of 235K, because, drumroll, it's snowing.

Energy & Environment

Introducing Fracklog, the New-Fangled Oil Storage System: Energy
Bloomberg - Oil drillers expecting prices to rebound after the biggest drop in six years have come up with an alternative to storing their crude in tanks: They’re keeping it in the ground. It’s a new twist on an old oil-trading technique, known as a contango storage play, in which a trader buys cheap crude in an oversupplied market and saves it to lock in profits at higher future prices. Drillers who have spent millions boring holes through petroleum-rich shale rock are just waiting for prices to go up before turning on the spigot.

Shock: Fracking Used to Inject Nuclear Waste Underground for Decades
Truthstream Media - Unearthed articles from the 1960s detail how nuclear waste was buried beneath the Earth’s surface by Halliburton & Co. for decades as a means of disposing the by-products of post-World War II atomic energy production.... Now, it is apparent that the fracking industry is also privy to many secrets of the nuclear energy industry and, specifically, where the bodies are buried, err… dangerous nuclear waste is buried, rather — waste that atomic researchers have otherwise found so difficult to eliminate.

Big Oil Pressured Oklahoma Scientists to Keep Quiet on Fracking-Quake Link
Sputnik News - Email documents obtained by EnergyWire revealed that the State’s scientists had been aware of the link, but downplayed findings in order to protect the industry’s practices. In fact, University of Oklahoma Seismologist Austin Holland had suspected that the state’s rising number of earthquakes may have been triggered by oil and gas projects as early as 2010, and had declined discussing it publicly until it could be scientifically proved. The email documents also reveal Holland was pressured by state officials, oil executives, as well as his own boss, University of Oklahoma President David Born, to downplay his findings.

Science & Technology

TIME Poll: Drudge, Food Babe Far More Influential Than Obama
Kit Daniels - THIS is why feds want to take over the Internet! Alternative media pioneer Matt Drudge and health activist Vani Hari, aka The Food Babe, are far more influential than President Obama, according to Time.com poll respondents. The poll appears at the end of an article listing Time’s picks for the 30 most influential people on the Internet, and at the time of this writing Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report commands the lead with 29%, the Food Babe has second at 27% and President Obama comes in a distant third with only 6%.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

Vaccinated Farmed Fish Have Side Effects
Activist Post - During my years of research, I’ve come across all sorts of information, studies, and papers relating to animal vaccines, but this one sort of “takes the cake,” in my opinion. Farmed fish are vaccinated because, according to the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science (NSVS), Modern fish farming is highly industrialized and relies heavily upon effective vaccines to minimize losses caused by infectious diseases.

4 Important Tips for Growing Your Own Superfoods
Natural Society - For those who bother to grow their own food – a ‘radical’ act that has almost become necessary due to the GMO-laden land around us – the idea of consuming boosted plant nutrients is wildly appealing. Growing specific varieties of vegetables and fruits which are rich in phytonutrients, including anthocyanins, quercetin, lutein, and lycopene, for example, can help to prevent cancer, help us age more gracefully, and boost energy levels.

Sustainability on Steroids: Organic Farmer Grosses $100K an Acre
Natural Society - A controversial farmer in California is proving that a veritable bumper crop can be had using new farming methods that don’t require GMO pesticides, herbicides, or even weeding, and require 10 times less water than the average farm. The best part – he earned $100K per acre last season without even harvesting all of his land.

Health

13 Natural Remedies That Can Relieve You From Rheumatoid Arthritis
Binit Kumar - Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic medical condition that affects joints of your feet and hands causing severe pain, swelling and in a few cases permanent disabilities. In Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the immune system of your body attacks joints that causes inflammation and destroys joints along with other organs of your body. There is natural relief.

Detoxify - Nutrients that help the body eliminate toxins
(NaturalNews) Specific nutrients can help one to detoxify and put one back on the path to optimal health. Toxins are either water soluble or fat soluble. Water soluble toxins are less concerning than fat soluble toxins, as water soluble toxins struggle to penetrate cells where they can cause damage, and they are easily excreted by the body. Fat soluble toxins move easily across cell membranes, damaging DNA and other vital structures within the cells. Often, they are stored out of reach in fat cells.

Is stevia healthy and safe to use?
(NaturalNews) It's been consumed for decades in Japan to help manage diabetes. Primal enthusiasts embrace it as a near perfect alternative to sugar. And health advocates love that it adds sweetness to food without the drawbacks of excess calories or the downfalls of artificial sweeteners. Stevia -- it's the darling of natural sugar substitutes.

KFC chicken meals contain mystery organs
(NaturalNews) Just when you think that fast food couldn't possibly be any more disgusting, a California teenager finds what he believes is a chicken's brain alongside his chicken breast, thighs and corn.

Tainted Medical Devices At Cedars-Sinai Linked To 2nd Superbug Outbreak
CBS LosAngeles - The superbug bacteria blamed for a deadly outbreak last month at UCLA Medical Center has been linked to four patients infected at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, hospital officials said Wednesday. Cedars-Sinai officials have reached out to those four patients and 67 others who underwent endoscopic procedures any time between August of last year through this February.... The FDA has acknowledged that the devices can be hard to clean, but says pulling the devices off the market would prevent people from getting life-saving procedures.

The Real Flu Strikes Just Twice Every 10 Years - Here's Why Vaccines Are Useless For Influenza
Dave Mihalovic - Many are still hypnotized by all the propaganda on influenza. Over 200 different types of viruses can cause a cold, and only a rare few can cause the flu. According to CDC data, in over the last decade, 86% of all influenza-type illnesses (ILI) were NOT caused by the influenza virus, thus influenza viruses are ONLY active 14% of the time.

March 2015 Settlements in Vaccine Court: 117 Vaccine Injuries and Deaths
Health Impact News - The Depart of Justice issues a report on vaccine injuries and deaths every quarter to the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines. The March 5, 2015 report states that there were 117 cases for vaccine injuries and deaths compensated from 11/16/2014 to 2/15/2015. Five of those settlements were for deaths linked to vaccines, with three deaths related to the flu shot.

How the Power of Your Mind Can Influence Your Healing and Recovery
Dr. Mercola - By definition, a placebo is an inert, innocuous substance that has no effect on your body. Placebos, such as sugar pills, are therefore used as controls against which the effects of modern-day medical treatments are measured. However, the placebo-effect, in which a patient believes he or she is getting an actual drug and subsequently feels better, despite receiving no “active” treatment at all, has become a well-recognized phenomenon.

What is Frankincense Good For? 8 Essential Oil Uses
Dr. Axe - Essential oils have been used for thousands of years for their therapeutic and healing properties as part of the practice of aromatherapy. Essential oils are sourced from leaves, stems, or roots of plants that are known for their health properties.

Daylight Savings Time May Cost You Extra—Both in Terms of Money and Health
Dr. Mercola - For Americans, it’s that time of the year again—time to move your clocks an hour ahead; losing a precious hour of sleep in the process. For many, the time change associated with daylight savings time (DST) also means spending several days or even weeks feeling generally off-kilter.
 



Thursday - March 5, 2015 - Today in History:

1766 - The first Spanish governor of Louisiana, Antonio de Ulloa, arrived in New Orleans.
1770 - "The Boston Massacre" took place when British troops fired on a crowd in Boston killing 5 people. 2 British troops were later convicted of manslaughter.
1842 - A Mexican force of over 500 men under Rafael Vasquez invaded Texas for the first time since the revolution. They briefly occupied San Antonio, but soon headed back to the Rio Grande.
1868 - The U.S. Senate was organized into a court of impeachment to decide charges against President Andrew Johnson.
1900 - Two U.S. battleships left for Nicaragua to halt revolutionary disturbances.
1922 - "Annie Oakley" (Phoebe Ann Moses) broke all existing records for women's trap shooting. She hit 98 out of 100 targets.
1923 - Old-age pension laws were enacted in the states of Montana and Nevada.
1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a four-day bank holiday in order to stop large amounts of money from being withdrawn from banks.
1946 - Winston Churchill delivered his "Iron Curtain Speech".
1946 - The U.S. sent protests to the U.S.S.R. on incursions into Manchuria and Iran.
1956 - The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the ban on segregation in public schools.
1977 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter appeared on CBS News with Walter Cronkite for the first "Dial-a-President" radio talk show.
1984 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities had the right to display the Nativity scene as part of their Christmas display.
1984 - The U.S. accused Iraq of using poison gas.
1997 - North Korea and South Korea met for first time in 25 years for peace talks.
2001 - Vice President Dick Cheney underwent an angioplasty for a partially blocked artery.
2004 - Martha Stewart was convicted of obstructing justice and lying to the government about why she'd unloaded her Imclone Systems Inc. stock just before the price plummeted.

World News

Russia accuses United States of plot to oust President Vladimir Putin via opposition aid
Sydney Morning Herald - Russia's Security Council accused the United States of plotting to oust President Vladimir Putin by financing the opposition and encouraging mass demonstrations, less than a week after a protest leader was murdered near the Kremlin. The US is funding Russian political groups under the guise of promoting civil society, just as in the "colour revolutions" in the former Soviet Union and the Arab world, council chief Nikolai Patrushev said on Wednesday. At the same time, the US is using the sanctions imposed over the conflict in Ukraine as a "pretext" to inflict economic pain and stoke discontent, he said.

Kazakhstan Authorities Announce Plans To De-Dollarize Economy
Zero Hedge - Following the approval of the government, Kazakhstan's Central Bank has announced it plans to de-dollarize its economy by the end of 2016. The goal is to avoid the macroeconomic instability that the USD creates and to give priority to Tenge in trade agreements (banning price designations in foreign exchange). Coming just 2 weeks after the ratification of the $100 billion BRICS bank, and Russia's creation of a SWIFT-alternative, one wonders - as one by one foreign nations agree non-dollar trade and swap agreements - who is becoming 'isolated' now?

Ukraine Bans Gold Transactions Over $125, Currency Derivatives and Interbank Purchases Exceeding $10,000
MISH'S Global Economic Trend Analysis - Today the National Bank of Ukraine announced new capital controls on currency transactions. All Interbank Transactions Over $10,000 are Banned. The national Bank of Ukraine has expanded the list of administrative restrictions for stabilization of the hryvnia, in particular, completely prohibiting the withdrawal of foreign dividends and limiting the purchase of foreign currency on the domestic markets.

The Global War On Pensioners
Zero Hedge - Pensioners are under attack. With yields depressed across asset classes, public pension funds in the U.S. are diving into risky investments in order to justify clinging to unrealistic investment rate assumptions. In Europe, low rates are causing corporations to adopt lower discount rates to determine the present value of their pension liabilities, dramatically increasing EU pension deficits. While in Greece, the government is robbing the public purse to make good on its commitments to the IMF.

IMF Director Admits: Greek Bailout Was "To Save German & French Banks"
Zero Hedge - For the first time in public, though practically the entire world assumed it, an official from The IMF has admitted that the various Greek bailouts were not for The Greeks at all... "They gave money to save German and French banks, not Greece,” Paolo Batista, one of the Executive Directors of International Monetary Fund told Greek private Alpha TV on Tuesday. As KeepTalkingGreece reports, Batista then went on to strongly criticized not only the euro zone and the European Central Bank but also the IMF and the Fund’s managing Director Christine Lagarde for defending Europe much too much.

Snowden says U.S. not offering fair trial if he returns
Sputnik News - "Snowden would be amenable to coming back to the United States for the kind of plea bargain that Gen. Petraeus received," Jesselyn Radack, an attorney for Snowden with the Government Accountability Project, told Politico. "If Petraeus deserves exceptional treatment because of his service to the nation, then surely the same exception should be offered to Edward Snowden, whose actions have led to a historic global debate that will strengthen free societies," Ben Wizner, another of Snowden's attorneys, said.

And It's Gone! After 3 Days, Beijing Bans Discussion Of Viral China Smog Documentary
Zero Hedge - Just 3 days after "Under The Dome" went massively viral (152 million views on China's Tencent alone), exposing the reality of China's disastrous pollution in an in-depth 104-minute documentary, The FT reports Chinese censors have moved to tamp down discussion domestically. We had previously noted with surprise just how 'big' the story had got without Beijing's intervention and now we see propaganda authorities directed news outlets on Monday not to publish stories about Under the Dome.

VIDEO: ISIS Leader Was Armed & Funded by Obama White House
Paul Joseph Watson - Top member of the jihadist group that the US government and NATO armed and funded in the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi back in 2011 is now leading ISIS forces in Libya.

CIA Asset Joins Islamic State in Libya
Kurt Nimmo - Abdelhakim Belhadj has reportedly joined forces with the Islamic State, according to the journalist Sara Carter. Belhadj is a former al-Qaeda operative who was a key player in the overthrow of Moammar Gaddafi. He worked directly with the U.S. and NATO.

Lord Rothschild Warns Investors of ‘Most Dangerous Geopolitical Situation Since WWII”
Paul Joseph Watson - The 78-year-old chairman of RIT Capital Partners, a £2.3bn trust, used the organization’s annual report to caution savers that the focus of the firm would be the preservation of shareholders’ capital and not short term gains. Rothschild said that “a geopolitical situation perhaps as dangerous as any we have faced since World War II” has created a “difficult economic background” of which investors should be wary.

China Has Announced Plans For A ‘World Currency’
Economic Collapse - On Wednesday, I came across an excellent article by Simon Black. What he had to say in that article just about floored me…When I arrived to Bangkok the other day, coming down the motorway from the airport I saw a huge billboard—and it floored me. The billboard was from the Bank of China. It said: “RMB: New Choice; The World Currency” Given that the Bank of China is more than 70% owned by the government of the People’s Republic of China, I find this very significant.

Ebola news

WHO Reports Surge in West African Ebola Cases
Sputnik News - The number of new confirmed cases of the Ebola virus in the week ending March 1 totaled 132, reports the World Health Organization, an increase of 33 cases from the previous week, when 99 new cases were reported. According to the report, for the first time since May 2014 no new confirmed cases were reported in Liberia, but cautioned that "surveillance in Liberia is currently less than optimal," with only 45 laboratory samples tested in the country, compared to 1,531 in Sierra Leone and 270 in Guinea.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

House Benghazi Committee Subpoenas Hillary Clinton's Personal Emails
Sputnik News - The House Select Subcommittee on Benghazi is asking for all emails related to the 2012 terrorist attack on a US diplomatic compound in Libya from all clintonemail.com accounts and any other staffers' personal accounts.

More Protests Over Chicago 'Black Site' Set in Chicago, Los Angeles
Sputnik News - Spokesperson for the Chicago-based advocacy group Chicago Anonymous Billy Mills said that advocacy groups in Chicago will protest over the local police ‘black site’ Homan Square on Saturday.... Chicago Anonymous' demands include a public inspection of Homan Square and a special meeting for Chicagoans to ask questions of supervising CPD about what happens in Homan Square. A similar rally will be held on Saturday by the American advocacy group #Gitmo2Chicago in Los Angeles, California to bring attention to the problem.

White House Involved in Illegal Email Scandal With Hillary Clinton
Kit Daniels - The Obama administration never questioned former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s exclusive use of private email in correspondence between the White House and the State Department. Clinton undoubtedly corresponded with the White House through email during her four-year tenure as Secretary of State, yet no one cared she used a private email account that was not only dangerous to national security but was also likely used to skirt the Federal Records Act.

Shock Report: White House Immigration Details Leaked: Obama Policies Will Create A “Country Within A Country”
Mac Slavo - The White House has finally unveiled it’s strategy with illegal immigration and according to well known radio host Mark Levin it is in its advanced stages after many years of scheming and implementation. In the following interview Levin is joined by Sue Payne, a radio host in Baltimore, Maryland, who happened to be invited to a series of conference calls with Obama administration officials. What you are about to hear is shocking.
* Related: Obama Amnesty: 100,000 Expanded Work Permits Issued Before Court Halted Program

Former CIA Director Petraeus Let Off with a Misdemeanor for ‘Mishandling’ Classified Info, Won’t Do Time
Daily Sheeple - Not that this should really be a surprise to anyone, but retired general and former CIA director David H. Petraeus has reached a deal with federal prosecutors which will allow him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor for giving Paula Broadwell, the general’s biographer and former mistress, eight so-called “black books” filled with classified national security info. All felony charges will be dropped.

VIDEO: Cop shoots, kills homeless man seconds after arriving
RT - Prosecutors have released surveillance video showing Monroe, La. police officer Jody LeDoux shooting and killing a homeless man within seconds of the officer’s arrival on scene. Raymond Keith Martinez was reportedly drunk when he was ejected from a local store and law enforcement was called to remove him, and may have reached for what shopkeepers say may have been a black cellphone when shot.

6-Year-Old Suspended and "Reeducated" After Pointing Finger Like Gun
Activist Post - Yet another in a series of crazy "guns that never were" in the school system, where a child must bear harsh punishment. KRDO News of Colorado reports: A Colorado Springs first-grader was suspended from school after pointing his fingers at a classmate in the shape of a gun. Six-year-old Elijah goes to Stratton Meadows Elementary School. On Monday, he pointed at a classmate in the shape of a gun and said, "You're dead." He received a one-day suspension for "threats against peers."

Economy & Business

Companies Are Stampeding to Buy Back Their Own Stock: Just Like Before the 2008 Crash
Wall Street on Parade - [Then] According to Katrina Brooker, writing in Fortune Magazine in October 2008, “Between 2003 and 2007, the amount of cash S&P 500 companies spent on buybacks nearly quadrupled, from $135 billion to $590 billion… [Now] Stock buybacks and dividends are eating up “almost all the Standard & Poor’s 500’s earnings”; Even with “earnings estimates deteriorating,” corporations have announced “an average of more than $5 billion in buybacks each day.”; “Companies in the S&P 500 have spent more than $2 trillion on their own stock since 2009”; Companies could be overpaying for their stock.

Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch Received $6 Trillion Backdoor Bailout from Fed
Wall Street On Parade - Senator Elizabeth Warren Questions Panel Members at the March 3, 2015 Hearing on Fed Accountability and Reform... “During the financial crisis, Congress bailed out the big banks with hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money; and that’s a lot of money. But the biggest money for the biggest banks was never voted on by Congress. Instead, between 2007 and 2009, the Fed provided over $13 trillion in emergency lending to just a handful of large financial institutions. That’s nearly 20 times the amount authorized in the TARP bailout.

Energy & Environment

'Dead on Arrival': Senate Vote Fails to Override Keystone Veto
Common Dreams - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday failed to override President Barack Obama's recent veto of legislation approving the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline project. The 62-37 vote fell just five votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to nullify the presidential veto.... Failure to override the veto does not mean that the Keystone project is no longer a threat, environmental advocates warned on Wednesday afternoon after the vote.

Over 4 Million People Press Obama to Protect Bees
Center for Food Safety - A coalition of beekeepers, farmers, business leaders, environmental and food safety advocates rallied in front of the White House and delivered more than 4 million petition signatures today calling on the Obama administration to put forth strong protections for bees and other pollinators. This action anticipates the Pollinator Health Task Force recommendations, expected later this month.

Science & Technology

VIDEO: Fifth monkey has signs of deadly bacteria in lab mishap
USA Today - Tests indicate a fifth monkey had been exposed to deadly bacteria that was somehow released from a high-security lab at the Tulane National Primate Research Center near New Orleans, according to an e-mail circulated among federal and state investigators. The monkey, like the others before it, was not part of an experiment. How the dangerous pathogen got out of its lab remains a mystery.... Louisiana state officials have expressed concerns that the bacteria, which can live and grow in soil and water, has contaminated the environment outside the facility.

Creepy Tracking Tech Gone Too Far: “Police Surveillance Now Fully Automated and Integrated Into Wireless Networks”
Mac Slavo - While the use of technology in policing is nothing new, it might surprise you have far things have gone – with much of police surveillance now fully automated and integrated into wireless networks, and monitored by Homeland Security-funded fusion centers. Reason.tv rounded up these examples of creepy, robot, privacy destroying police tactics (and it’s only just beginning)...

Survival/Preparedness

10 Life-Saving Survival Items That Fit In Your Pocket
Off the Grid News - You may have a backpack at home that’s armed to the teeth with survival gear, or perhaps you have a similar kit in your car. That’s great, but have you considered carrying survival gear in your pocket?

Health

Flu vaccine paradox spreading globally as more vaccinated people catch the flu
(NaturalNews) At least six separate studies conducted by the same people that are still pushing the flu shot have confirmed that seasonal flu shots make people more prone to contracting the flu. The evidence is now overwhelming that, rather than impart immunity as long claimed, flu shots actually destroy the immune system and increase the risk of infection.

Recently vaccinated children a threat to public health: Evidence shows they can SPREAD disease and CAUSE outbreaks
(NaturalNews) Physicians and public health officials know that recently vaccinated individuals can spread disease and that contact with the immunocompromised can be especially dangerous. For example, the Johns Hopkins Patient Guide warns the immunocompromised to "Avoid contact with children who are recently vaccinated," and to "Tell friends and family who are sick, or have recently had a live vaccine (such as chicken pox, measles, rubella, intranasal influenza, polio or smallpox) not to visit."

Mainstream media declares: US immigrants spread measles to Latin America, not the other way around
(NaturalNews) Without their sponsors and advertisers, the mainstream media wouldn't exist. The mainstream press ISN'T a free press at all. It's literally controlled by high-paying sponsors, which are primarily junk food companies like McDonalds, big agribusinesses like Syngenta and Monsanto, and giant drug-dispensing companies like Merck and GlaxoSmithKline. The media is certain not to step on the toes of these big businesses or else they would lose their funding.

Chemical corporations buried report on endocrine disruptors to trade health for profit
(NaturalNews) A scientific report linking endocrine-disrupting chemicals to a myriad of health effects was reportedly blocked from being published by European Union (EU) officials, according to new investigation by The Guardian.

Four surprising uses for peppermint oil
(NaturalNews) The oil of the peppermint plant has remained a central component of many medicine cabinets for centuries, for good reasons. Aside from being a proven anagesic, expectorant and carminative, this intense and aromatic oil is a potent anti-inflammatory that is well-known for treating gastrointestinal conditions, such as indigestion and stomach spasms, in a gentle and natural manner. Emerging evidence also suggests that it can even treat irritable bowel syndrome.

Polysorbate 80 And Other Emulsifiers Found In Foods and Vaccines Alter Gut Microbes Leading To Inflammatory Conditions
Mae Chan - Polysorbate 80 and other emulsifiers commonly found in pharmaceuticals, vaccines, cosmetics and many foods have been found to negatively affect the immune system and affect fertility. Researchers writing in Nature have now found they are also altering our gut microbiota composition and driving metabolic changes that lead to inflammatory conditions and obesity.

Overtreatment of Diabetes Now Causing Environmental Destruction
Dr. Mercola - Waterways in the US contain residues of a multitude of drugs —including diabetes drugs, birth control pills, antidepressants, painkillers, and many other chemical compounds. The type 2 diabetes drug metformin is the most prevalent drug in Lake Michigan, and it may be altering the hormonal systems of fish in the lake.

Blueberries Protect Against Top 2 Killer Diseases
Green Med Info - If you still think of blueberries as an occasional summer treat, think again. Research confirms that eating just a cup a day helps fend off heart disease and cancer.



Wednesday - March 4, 2015 - Today in History:

1766 - The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, which had caused bitter and violent opposition in the U.S. colonies.
1789 - The first Congress of the United States met in New York and declared that the U.S. Constitution was in effect.
1791 - Vermont was admitted as the 14th U.S. state. It was the first addition to the original 13 American colonies.
1794 - The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress. The Amendment limited the jurisdiction of the federal courts to automatically hear cases brought against a state by the citizens of another state. Later interpretations expanded this to include citizens of the state being sued, as well.
1826 - The first railroad in the U.S. was chartered. It was the Granite Railway in Quincy, MA.
1861 - The Confederate States of America adopted the "Stars and Bars" flag.
1917 - Jeanette Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the House of Representatives.
1925 - Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office in Washington, DC. The presidential inauguration was broadcast on radio for the first time.
1933 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt gave his inauguration speech in which he said "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself."
1933 - Labor Secretary Frances Perkins became the first woman to serve in a Presidential administrative cabinet.
1954 - In Boston, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital reported the first successful kidney transplant.
1987 - President Reagan addressed the nation on Iran-Contra affair, acknowledging his overtures to Iran had "deteriorated" into an arms-for-hostages deal.
1997 - U.S. President Clinton barred federal spending on human cloning.
1999 - Monica Lewinsky's book about her affair with U.S. President Clinton went on sale in the U.S.
2002 - Canada banned human embryo cloning but permitted government-funded scientists to use embryos left over from fertility treatment or abortions.
2012 - Vladimir Putin won re-election in Russia's presidential election.

World News

Iraqi Army Allegedly Downs A US Helicopter For Providing Weapons To ISIS: Report
Brandon Turbeville - The Iraqi Army has once again claimed that it has downed a NATO aircraft that was providing military assistance directly to ISIS according to Iranian FARS News Agency. This time, the Iraqis are claiming they shot down a US Helicopter in the Al-Bagdadi region in Anbar Province last week. The reason for shooting the helicopter, according to FARS and, apparently, high-ranking Iraqi officials, was that the helicopter was carrying weapons to ISIS.

In "Unprecedented Move" Nobel Peace Prize Chairman Demoted For Decision To Give Obama 2009 Award
Zero Hedge - Back in 2009, just months after his swearing in, president Barack Obama was crowned with an unexpected glory: he won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 due to "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."… earlier today, in what France24 dubbed an "in an unprecedented move", the controversial head of Norway's Nobel Peace Prize committee was removed Tuesday and demoted to the rank of mere member.

Obama Attacks China for Creating US-Inspired Spying Apparatus
Sputnik News - President Obama has harsh words for China's proposed counterterrorism law. This despite the fact that the new rules are modeled largely on the US regulations, and more directly, on the precedent set by the NSA's spying apparatus... If US tech companies want to do business in China - and given the market size, yes, tech companies want to do business in China - then they'll have to place servers in China. They'll also have to provide encryption keys, and allow the Chinese government special surveillance access into their systems.

Video of Israeli soldiers using dogs against Palestinian boy sparks outcry
RT - A leaked video shot in December purportedly shows IDF soldiers setting dogs on a Palestinian teenager. The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attack, while Israel's chief military prosecutor ordered an investigation into the incident… Hashem had been accused of throwing stones at the soldiers. The IDF has said that an “internal inquiry” would be conducted and added that “the necessary steps will be taken to prevent such incidents from recurring.”

Snowden ready to go to US if he gets fair trial - whistleblower's lawyer
RT - Edward Snowden would go to the US if he was sure that he would face a fair trial there, the former NSA contractor’s lawyer Anatoly Kucherena says. "Edward Snowden is ready to return to the US, but on the condition that he be given guarantees to receive a fair and impartial trial," Kucherena told journalists on Tuesday, as cited by TASS. …“So what we are being guaranteed is not the fair trial, but that Snowden will not be executed,” Kucherena said. “And it’s done by a prosecutor, who according to the law, is not in any way able to determine a court’s decision.”

Pakistan’s mobile phone owners told: be fingerprinted or lose your sim card
The Guardian - In one of world’s largest efforts to collect biometric information, Pakistan has ordered mobile phone users to verify their identities through fingerprints for a national database being compiled to curb terrorism. If they don’t, their service will be shut off, an unthinkable option for many after a dozen years of explosive growth in mobile phone usage.

UN drugs body warns US states and Uruguay over cannabis legalization
The Guardian - The United Nations has renewed its warnings to Uruguay and the US states of Colorado and Washington that their cannabis legalisation policies fail to comply with international drug treaties. The annual report from the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board, which is responsible for policing the drug treaties, said it would send a high-level mission to Uruguay, which became the first country to legalise the production, distribution, sale and consumption of cannabis for recreational purposes. The UN drug experts said they would also continue their dialogue with the US government over the commercial sale and distribution of cannabis in Colorado and Washington state.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Netanyahu's speech to Congress: long on terror, short on substance
The Guardian - In the end, Binyamin Netanyahu sidestepped the nuclear option and did what he does so well: scared American politicians to death… But his highly divisive speech to Congress – boycotted by close to 60 Democratic members who objected to a foreign leader using the Capitol as a re-election platform and pulpit to bully the American president – merely regurgitated information that Netanyahu himself said is easily found on Google.
* Related: Is Netanyahu "Crying Wolf" About Iran?

Netanyahu Tells Congress Iran On “March of Conquest, Subjugation and Terror" (Video)
Kurt Nimmo - The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, told Congress on Tuesday Iran poses a threat to the entire world. “The greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said. “That is exactly what could happen if the deal being negotiated is accepted by Iran. That deal would not prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons. It would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons, lots of them.”

Feds: Next 9/11 Will Come Out of Libya
Kurt Nimmo - An anonymous source told Fox News on Tuesday the U.S. government believes a terror attack comparable to the 9/11 attack will come out of Libya. Citing the presence of Islamic State operatives in Benghazi, Derna and Sirte, the government argues it needs authority to go into Libya in pursuit of ISIS.

Obama to Expand Federal Control Over State, Local Police
Kit Daniels - Like Common Core, DOJ to develop “standards” for state and local agencies. The plan released Monday, entitled Task Force on 21st Century Policing, advocates the federalization of police agencies across the country by forcing them to adhere to stricter requirements when they receive federal funding. “The U.S. Department of Justice, through the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services [COPS] and Office of Justice Programs, should provide technical assistance and incentive funding to jurisdictions with small police agencies that take steps towards shared services, regional training, and consolidation,” one of the numerous recommendations in the plan stated.

Texas Town Fires Entire Police Department, Crime Drops By 61%
Steve Watson - A Texas town has proven that there is a solution to out of control cops after it replaced the entire police department with private security officers and saw a remarkable drop in crime by 61%. Sharpstown, located southwest of Houston, decided in 2012 that regular public policing was proving wholly ineffective, and opted not to renew a contract with the constable’s office. Instead the town’s civic leaders hired private security agents with the company SEAL Security Solutions, and devised a more effective policing strategy.

Wyoming Governor Vetoes Asset Forfeiture Bill, Because Asset Forfeiture 'Is Right'
Techdirt. - With the abuses of asset forfeiture being loudly publicized, there has (finally) been some legislative pushback against these abusive programs. Wyoming's legislators -- hoping to institute asset forfeiture reform -- ran into pushback themselves from the state's governor, who vetoed the popular bill (which passed out of the Senate with an 80-9 vote) when it hit his desk.

Cost of AR-15 Ammo Doubles in Response to ATF Ban Threat
Paul Joseph Watson - The federal agency announced its intention to ban sales of M855 “green tip” bullets, typically used by sports shooters, in the name of protecting law enforcement officers from “the threat posed by ammunition capable of penetrating a protective vest.” Gun stores quickly reported a run on the ammunition, with suppliers unable to keep up with the demand. The buying frenzy has also sent prices skyrocketing, as Liberty Arms Manager Colton May explained... “Ten to 11 bucks, you know, for a box of 20,” May said. “Now I’ve seen it priced for 20 bucks, even higher and that’s just a small batch of ammunition.”

Indy council creates 'Homeless Bill of Rights
Indy Star - The City-County Council on Monday voted largely along party lines to create a "Homeless Bill of Rights," making Indianapolis one of the first cities in the country to do so. The ordinance, modeled after similar laws in Rhode Island and Illinois, establishes specific protections for the homeless, a vulnerable population that advocates say face pervasive discrimination in their daily lives. Among the protections: the right to "move freely in public spaces," such as sidewalks and public buildings; the right to equal treatment by city agencies; the right to emergency medical care; and the right to a "reasonable expectation of privacy" for their personal property, just as someone would have inside a home.

Hundreds of Students Protest Common Core Tests
Breitbart - Hundreds of high school students in New Mexico walked out of school Monday on the day they were scheduled to begin taking the standardized tests that are aligned with the Common Core standards. New Mexico students join others from across the nation whose parents are opting them out of the federally funded Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments linked to standards that have been imposed on American students, parents and teachers.

‘Free-range’ Maryland parents hit with ‘unsubstantiated’ child neglect
Fox News - The Maryland parents who believe in 'free-range parenting' and were investigated after police picked up their children -- ages 6 and 10 -- walking home alone from a park in January were reportedly found responsible for 'unsubstantiated' child neglect. The decision, which will be appealed by the parents, means the Montgomery County Child Protective Services will keep a file on the Meitiv family for at least five yeas, The Washington Post reported.

Economy & Business

Bernanke Wants the U.S. President to Declare “Economic Emergencies” in Future Crises
Michael Krieger - Presidents should get the power to declare economic emergencies along the lines to declare war, said former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Monday. It might make sense to give “the president some ability to declare emergencies or take extraordinary actions and not put that all on the Fed,” Bernanke said at a conference. “The constitution gives the president significant flexibility to respond to military situations,” in part because they are chaotic, he noted.

Dramatic Rise in Suicide Rate for Americans 40-64, but not for other Age Groups
AllGov - The Great Recession that began at the end of the George W. Bush presidency is finally over, but its effects are still being learned. One of its results is an increase in suicides among those hit the hardest by the downturn. Suicide rates have increased dramatically among those aged 40 to 64, while remaining stable for other age groups.

VIDEO: Target to cut jobs as part of $2B cost-savings plan
CNBC News - Target's chief executive, Brian Cornell, said Tuesday the retailer will cut several thousand jobs within the next two years as part of a $2 billion cost-savings plan.

Energy & Environment

Prices to Plummet Again? US Running Out of Room to Store Oil
Sputnik News - For nearly two months the United States has been producing and importing an average of 1 million more barrels of oil every day more than it is consuming. This is leading to a major storage issue, which analysts say could drive prices for oil -- and possibly gasoline -- even lower.

Science & Technology

US air traffic control computer system vulnerable to terrorist hackers
Ars Technica - The US system for guiding airplanes is open to vulnerabilities from outside hackers, the Government Accountability Office said Monday. The weaknesses that threaten the Federal Aviation Administration's ability to ensure the safety of flights include the failure to patch known three-year-old security holes, the transmission and storage of unencrypted passwords, and the continued use of "end-of-life" key servers.

VIDEO: Get ready for only one credit card (and a phone)
CNBC News - A start-up called Stratos has spent three years developing the Connected Card. Here's how it works: All of your accounts are collected onto your smartphone. Then that information is transmitted to the Bluetooth-enabled card with a tap, based on which account is needed, which is often determined by geography. Near the bank? You get the ATM card info sent. At a gas station? Your gas card, or Visa, whatever. One card to rule them all. One card ... with all your information on it. Hmmmm.

'FREAK attack' leaves millions of Apple and Google users vulnerable to hackers
The Guardian - Millions of people may have been left vulnerable to hackers while surfing the web on Apple and Google devices, thanks to a newly discovered security flaw known as “FREAK attack.” There’s no evidence so far that any hackers have exploited the weakness, which companies are now moving to repair. Researchers blame the problem on an old government policy, abandoned over a decade ago, which required US software makers to use weaker security in encryption programs sold overseas due to national security concerns.... About a third of all encrypted websites were vulnerable as of Tuesday, including sites operated by American Express, Groupon, Kohl’s, Marriott and some government agencies, the researchers said.

AVG’s Invisibility Glasses Will Protect You against Facial Recognition Tech
Wall Street OTC - Invisibility glasses were developed by AVG Innovation Labs in an attempt to protect the privacy of their users both on-and off-line. Many people feel constrained by the wide spread of smartphone cameras in public spaces, as well as by the surveillance cameras that lurk at nearly every corner. And to top it off, Facebook stated that it would soon release a facial recognition software that would be able to tell with a more than 90 percent accuracy who the person in that photo is.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

Wyoming is the Food Freedom Capital — House Bill 56 Now Law
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund - Governor Matt Mead signed the Wyoming Food Freedom Act, House Bill 56 (HB 56), today! The new law takes effect immediately. HB 56 allows the unlicensed, unregulated sale of any food except meat (the bill allows poultry) direct from producer to informed consumer. Sales are allowed at the producers' premises, through delivery, and at farmers markets. The producer must inform the consumer that the product is neither regulated nor inspected.

Minnesota aims to fine family farmers $500 per day — Family farm faces showdown with state agency over privacy and the right to farm
Police State USA - If the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) gets its way, Lake View Natural Dairy Farm, owned and operated by David and Heidi Berglund and their daughter Lyndsay, will be fined $500 per day until they submit to an unconstitutional inspection of their farm. When the farm briefly explored the possibility of selling milk for processing, this triggered a call to the MDA by the processor, and the MDA realized they had no record or control over this farm.

Health

Pulled from Exchanges, Fitness Supplement Found to Contain Prozac Drug
Military. COM - A fitness supplement that was twice pulled from exchange store shelves, first following soldier deaths and then after an outbreak of liver disease, has now been found to contain the active ingredient in the prescription drug Prozac, the Food and Drug Administration announced Saturday.

Deadly bacteria leaked in Louisiana lab: Cause & spread unknown
RT - The bacteria cause meliodosis, a disease with a 50%-fatality rate even with treatment. Because it’s resistant to multiple antibiotics, meliodosis has been researched as a potential biological weapon, though the Tulane lab is said to have been working on a vaccine. “We're taking this extraordinarily seriously. It's very disturbing to us,” Andrew Lackner, director of the Tulane primate center, told USA Today. He also reiterated: “There has never been a public health threat.”

Children Around the World Vaccinated at Gunpoint – Is the U.S. Heading in the Same Direction?
Health Impact News - The Guardian is reporting that health officials in Pakistan are arresting and throwing into jail hundreds of parents who refuse to allow their children to receive the oral polio vaccine. These health officials are forcing children to receive the vaccine at gunpoint... Feroz Shah, a spokesman for the district administration in Peshawar, said 471 people had been imprisoned in the city and surrounding villages under government orders on charges of endangering public security.
* Related: Developing World – The WHO’s Private Vaccine Laboratory

LA County to pay family $800,000 for kidnapping their unvaccinated children without a warrant
(NaturalNews) The Board of Supervisors for Los Angeles County have agreed to pay the parents of two children $800,000 after a sheriff's deputy and accompanying social workers forcibly removed them. As reported by KPCC radio, the payment is a settlement over a civil rights lawsuit filed by the parents in which they claimed that their kids were wrongfully removed from the parents' San Gabriel Valley residence four years ago. It took four months for the parents to get their children back.

Attacking Ourselves: Top Doctors Reveal Vaccines Turn Our Immune System Against Us
Green Med Info - [...] many reports that describe post-vaccination autoimmunity strongly suggest that vaccines can indeed trigger autoimmunity. Defined autoimmune diseases that may occur following vaccinations include arthritis, lupus (systemic lupus erythematosus, SLE) diabetes mellitus, thrombocytopenia, vasculitis, dermatomyosiositis, Guillain-Barre syndrome and demyelinating disorders. Almost all types of vaccines have been reported to be associated with the onset of ASIA." ASIA – or Autoimmune/inflammatory Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants (also known as Shoenfeld's syndrome) -- first appeared in the Journal of Autoimmunology four years ago.

Over 100,000 Americans Sign Petition Opposing Mandatory Vaccinations
Paul Joseph Watson - The Obama administration could be compelled to respond to a petition on the WhiteHouse.gov website which opposes mandatory vaccinations, with over 100,000 Americans expressing their opposition to forced shots. Entitled ‘Prohibit Any Laws Mandating the Force and Requirement of Vaccinations of Any Kind’, the petition states; “No human being should be FORCED to be vaccinated against their will and/or personal/religious beliefs. I petition against making vaccinations of any kind mandatory. This includes forcing children to be vaccinated to attend public schools, activities, and daycare centers. This also includes adults working in the public or private sector.”

US to Face Doctor Shortage by 2025 as Graduates Avoid Medical Careers
Sputnik News - A shortage of doctors is expected in the United States in 2025 as not enough graduates seek careers in medicine to satisfy the aging population's health needs, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) President and CEO Darrell Kirch said in a statement. "The doctor shortage is real - it's significant - and it's particularly serious for the kind of medical care that our aging population is going to need," Kirch said on Tuesday.

High Salt Diet Protects Against Infection, Increases Immune Function
Natural Blaze - You may remember a landmark JAMA study in 2011 that showed that contrary to what the medical community espoused for years - salt actually lengthens your life; it doesn't cut your life or raise the risk of hypertension. That study found that people actually lived longer if they consumed salt. Notably, they were not studying pink Himalayan salt, but regular old, processed table salt. Additionally, a Cochrane study confirmed that salt did not cause heart or blood pressure problems and that reducing the substance offered no reduction of heart risks.

VIDEO: Lumber Liquidators linked to health and safety violations
CBS News - 60 Minutes found that Lumber Liquidators' Chinese-made laminate flooring contains amounts of toxic formaldehyde that may not meet health and safety standards... The average level in Lumber Liquidators products that we found was over six to seven times above the state standard for formaldehyde. And we found some that were close to 20 times above the level that's allowed to be sold.... I would say long-term exposure at that level would be risky because it would increase the risk for chronic respiratory irritation, change in a person's lung function, increased risk of asthma.

Top 12 Most Healthy Benefits of Lentils (#11 Really Surprised Us!)
Binit Kumar - Lentils may be individually small, but they pack one heck of a nutritious punch. They're full of essential minerals and nutrients like potassium, iron, folate, zinc, and calcium - all of which are important for your body's well being. And they provide one of the richest sources of dietary fiber on earth. If you haven't already made lentils a part of your weekly diet plan, here are twelve reasons why you should seriously consider doing so.
 



Tuesday - March 3, 2015 - Today in History:

1803 - The first impeachment trial of a U.S. Judge, John Pickering, began.
1845 - Florida became the 27th U.S. state.
1845 - The U.S. Congress passed legislation overriding a U.S. President’s veto. It was the first time the Congress had achieved this.
1849 - The Gold Coinage Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. It allowed the minting of gold coins.
1849 - The U.S. Congress created the territory of Minnesota.
1851 - The U.S. Congress authorized the 3-cent piece. It was the smallest U.S. silver coin.
1857 - Britain and France declared war on China.
1903 - In St. Louis, MO, Barney Gilmore was arrested for spitting.
1903 - The U.S. imposed a $2 head tax on immigrants.
1908 - The U.S. government declared open war on on U.S. anarchists.
1910 - J.D. Rockefeller Jr. announced his withdrawal from business to administer his father's fortune for an "uplift in humanity". He also appealed to the U.S. Congress for the creation of the Rockefeller Foundation.
1931 - The "Star Spangled Banner," written by Francis Scott Key, was adopted as the American national anthem.
1952 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld New York's Feinberg Law that banned Communist teachers in the U.S.
1969 - Sirhan Sirhan testified in a Los Angeles court that he killed Robert Kennedy.
1987 - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a package of $30 million in non-lethal aid for the Nicaraguan Contras.
1991 - Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers. The scene was captured on amateur video.
1995 - A U.N. peacekeeping mission in Somalia ended. Several gunmen were killed by U.S. Marines in Mogadishu while overseeing the pull out of peacekeepers.
2002 - Voters in Switzerland approved joining the United Nations, abandoning almost 200 years of formal neutrality.

World News

Despite Russian Warnings, US Will Deploy A Battalion To Ukraine By The End Of The Week
Zero Hedge - "Before this week is up, we’ll be deploying a battalion... to the Ukraine to train Ukrainian forces for the fight that's taking place," stated US 173rd Airborne Brigade Commander Colonel Michael Foster said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC on Monday. Despite earlier warnings from Russia (and claims that NATO had not agreed to any such foreign 'boots on the ground' action'), Sputnik News reports, Foster added, "what we’ve got laid out is six United States companies that will be training six Ukrainian companies throughout the summer."

Cash-strapped Kiev Still Owes Moscow $2.4 Billion for Gas
Sputnik News - Ukraine’s Naftogaz owes $2.4 billion in arrears, including $200 million in penalties, for Russian gas deliveries, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Tuesday.

Report: Iraqi Forces AGAIN claim US is Supplying ISIS With Weapon Drops
Steve Watson - Iraqi forces have once again sensationally charged that the US military is purposefully dropping weapons to terrorist militants in the western parts of the country, according to a report. The Iranian Fars News Agency reports “A group of Iraqi popular forces known as Al-Hashad Al-Shabi shot down a US Army helicopter that was carrying weapons for the ISIL in the western parts of Al-Baqdadi region in Al-Anbar province” last week. The report claims that the fighters posted a picture (see above) online of the downed chopper and the weapons that were recovered

Shot in the head at point blank range: Latest sickening ISIS video shows masked gunmen executing ‘spy’
The Daily Mail - Militants fighting for the Islamic State in Syria have released sickening footage of the murder of a man the terror group accused of working as a spy. The video was filmed in Aleppo and shows a man believed to be named Ahmed Muhammad being led out to a forecourt by masked executioners, who then shoot him in the head multiple times at point blank range.

CNN Informs America That ‘Jihadi John’ Is None Other Than VLADIMIR PUTIN
Daily Caller - CNN, which bills itself as “The Most Trusted Name in News,” has apologized for a technical gaffe that caused the cable channel to display a photo of Vladimir Putin above the blazing banner “‘JIHADI JOHN’ REVEALED.” The error occurred late last week as CNN London correspondent Max Foster discussed the much ballyhooed news that the man called “Jihadi John” has at last been identified as twentysomething British Muslim Mohammed Emwazi, The Telegraph reports.

As Greek Default Fears Return, Government Considers "Borrowing" Pensions To Repay IMF
Zero Hedge - Greek short-term default risk jumped over 300bps today putting the odds of a restructuring at 50-50 within the next year as the warnings we issued last week with regard Greece's imminent default on its IMF loan loom. Seeking to reassure its lenders (and avoid yet more capital flight), Reuters reports the Greek government said it was "exploring solutions," including delaying payments to suppliers or try to raise up to 3 billion euros by borrowing from state entities such as pension funds. We are sure the Greek people will be enthused when they find out what the 'radical left' has in store for their funds...

Russian retail food price freeze, as inflation surges
RT - Russia’s top supermarket chains are to freeze prices on basic foodstuffs for two months, soaking up the costs as food is expected to eat up half of Russians’ incomes this year. The retailers plan to freeze prices on 20 socially important items in an attempt to stabilize the food market, the Association of Retail Stores (AKORT) said on its website last week.

United Nations Admits Climate Change Is About Undoing Capitalism
Daily Sheeple - At a press conference in Brussels last month, the UN climate chief delineated the objectives of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United Nations. She revealed: “This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution.”

Country Narrowly Escapes Mandated Flouridation of Table Salt
Natural Society - Lebanon has narrowly avoided having the toxic additive added to their table salt due to activists and health professionals loudly contesting mandated fluoridation of the country’s salt. Through online petitions submitted by activists, and many meetings with the Health Minister, Wael Abou Faour, excess fluoride exposure has been narrowly avoided by the people of Lebanon.

Ebola news

Ebola nurse Nina Pham used as PR pawn, damaged by experimental medications
(NaturalNews) Pham reportedly filed a lawsuit on March 2 in Dallas County against Texas Health Resources, the overseer of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital where she contracted Ebola while treating "patient zero" Thomas Eric Duncan. The 26-year-old nurse says she now suffers from constant nightmares, body aches and insomnia due to the experimental medications that were forced upon her while in isolation.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Hillary Clinton Used Personal Email Account at State Dept., Possibly Breaking Rules
NY Times - Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record.... Her expansive use of the private account was alarming to current and former National Archives and Records Administration officials and government watchdogs, who called it a serious breach.

US govt issues logistics support tender for 300 military personnel in Ukraine
RT - The US government has published a tender, saying it’s hiring services for the movement of equipment and approximately 300 US personnel in Ukraine, according to the Federal Business Opportunities website. “The contractor shall provide all equipment, vehicles, and personnel necessary to provide ground transportation in accordance with the ordering clause,” the tender states. Transportation will be required from 5 March until 31 October for about three return trips from Lvov International Airport to the International Peace Keeping and Security Center (IPSC) in Yavoriv.

Obama-Netanyahu "Fallout" is Theater - Planned in 2009
Tony Cartalucci - In a 2009 US policy paper published by the corporate-financier funded Brookings Institution, it was made clear that the US was determined to provoke Iran into a conflict and effect regime change at any cost - up to and including an outright military invasion and occupation of Iran with US troops.

DoD Releases “Evidence” of Snowden’s Damages to National Security… and It’s COMPLETELY Redacted
Daily Sheeple - Per a Freedom of Information Act Request lawsuit filed by Vice News, the Department of Defense has released a report on the damaging effects of Edward Snowden’s 2013 NSA leaks. The only problem? It’s redacted. Entirely. Not a crumb of evidence was present in the “evidence” the government released.

White House Claims Banning AR-15 Ammo Will “Save” Cops, But Rifle Murder Rate Only 2.3%
Kit Daniels - White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on Monday the ATF’s ban of M855 AR-15 ammunition is a “common-sense step.” “We are looking at additional ways to protect our brave men and women in law enforcement, and believe that this process is valuable for that reason alone,” he said. But of the 12,253 murders reported by the FBI in 2013 (the most recent data available,) only 285, or 2.3%, were committed using rifles, including long arms such as bolt-action and single-shot rifles, meaning that semi-automatic AR-15s would account for less than 2.3% of all murders.

City of Cleveland says 12-yr-old boy killed by cops was culpable for his death
RT - Attorneys for Cleveland, Ohio allege in a new court filing that Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy fatally shot by local police last November, was responsible for his own death. Responding to a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Rice’s family, lawyers for the city of Cleveland write that Rice’s death was “directly and proximately caused by [his] own acts.”

School Threatens to Suspend Kids if Parents Skip Meeting on Common Core Testing
Mikael Thalen - Students at Detroit’s Coleman A. Young Elementary School were threatened with suspension after their parents failed to attend a “mandatory” meeting on an upcoming Common Core test. After the parents of multiple students missed the school’s initial meeting, teachers scheduled a follow-up and sent out letters demanding they appear or face the consequences. Derrick and Latrica Smoak, who spoke with WDIV-TV after receiving the letter, said that they were shocked to see educators making such a threat.

Economy & Business

VIDEO: Obama “Very Interested” In Raising Taxes Through Executive Action
Town Hall - White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Monday that President Obama is “very interested” in the idea of raising taxes through unitlateral executive action. “The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans,” Earnest said in response to a question about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling on Obama to raise more than $100 billion in taxes through IRS executive action.

$4 Million In Gold Bars Stolen In 11th Largest Heist In History
Zero Hedge - From CBS: North Carolina authorities and the FBI are investigating the theft of an estimated $4 million worth of gold allegedly stolen during an armed robbery along Interstate 95 on Sunday evening, CBS affiliate WRAL reports. After mechanical problems with their truck, two armed guards who were traveling from Miami to Massachusetts with a shipment of silver and gold pulled over at mile marker 114 on the Interstate.

Stock Market Bubble: Wall Street Is Ecstatic As The NASDAQ Closes Above 5000
Economic Collapse - Are we at the tail end of the stock market bubble to end all stock market bubbles? Wall Street was full of glee Monday when the Nasdaq closed above 5000 for the first time since the peak of the dotcom bubble in March 2000. And almost everyone in the financial world seems convinced that things are somehow “different” this time around.

NYC Residents Will Pay $2-3k a Month for "Micro-Apartments" as Luxury Car Sales Outpace Regular Car Sales
Liberty Blitzkrieg - In the past five years, global registrations of the seven largest ultra-premium car brands–a group that also includes Aston Martin and Lamborghini–have surged by 154 percent, far outpacing the 36 percent gain in overall car sales worldwide…To combat the city’s housing shortage while serving its high number of single adults who may share apartments with multiple roommates in this ridiculously expensive town, a new housing complex is set to come to the rescue. Consisting of 55 prefabricated, modular studio apartments…Each pad, designed for single humans and even pairs, measures just 260 to 360 square feet — or about the size of a Hollywood starlet’s walk-in closet.

Energy & Environment

Congressman Urges Protection for Power Grid: EMP Attack “Could Bring Our Civilization to a Cold, Dark Halt”
Mac Slavo - Few other scenarios hold as much potential for disaster and disruption to the lives of everyone in society. At a moment’s notice, 300 million Americans could be made instantly desperate.... Arizona Congressman Trent Franks recently reintroduced a bill intended to provide better security for critical infrastructure, with particular emphasis on the threat posed to the power grid by an EMP – which Rep. Franks points out could occur either naturally from a solar flare or by way of a targeted man-made weapon.

Science & Technology

Americans to Receive Full Biometric Treatment for All Forms of European Travel
Daily Sheeple - In a trend that isn’t wholly surprising, EU Observer reports: US citizens and other non-EU nationals who enter Europe will be asked to have their faces image-captured and fingerprints scanned upon arrival at a half-dozen major airports. This “biometric dragnet” is the pilot test for the EU’s new “smart borders” packages.

The Internet Of Things: A Dystopian Nightmare Where Everyone And Everything Will Be Monitored On The Internet
Economic Collapse - Can you imagine a world where your home, your vehicles, your appliances and every single electronic device that you own is constantly connected to the Internet? This is not some grand vision that is being planned for some day in the future. This is something that is being systematically implemented right now.

NYPD to conduct “virtual stakeouts,” get alerts on wanted cars nationwide
Ars Technica - The New York Police Department (NYPD) will soon have the ability to track stolen or wanted cars even if they are well outside of the five boroughs. The NYPD is set to sign a $442,500 deal over three years with Vigilant Solutions to subscribe to the company’s massive private automated license plate reader (ALPR or LPR) database, according to a recent contract awards hearing. The database reportedly contains 2.2 billion records.

Seattle police unveil blurred, soundless body cam YouTube channel
Ars Technica - Faces are redacted, voices dropped amid privacy concerns. In what appears to be the nation's first, the Seattle Police Department is launching the SPD BodyWornVideo channel. At its core, the channel is confirmation that the surveillance society has gone mainstream—perhaps too mainstream.

 Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

Obama Administration approves GMO tree to be planted without regulation or oversight
(NaturalNews) The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has quietly given a green light to the world's first genetically modified (GM) tree species, recommending that its developer pursue unregulated commercial cultivation of the artificial plant without safety testing or a proper environmental impact assessment.

Survival/Preparedness

The 10 Daily Habits of Frugal People
The Organic Prepper - Living a life of thrift and frugality is all about the little habits. It’s about your mindset. Saving money on enormous expenditures is great, but it is the small daily actions that add up and change your life.

Health

Do you suffer from hypothyroidism? How to tell if your thyroid is slow
(NaturalNews) There are various testing methods for poor thyroid function, but the testing is problematic. Most physicians use outdated reference ranges when testing thyroid function. Also, studies have demonstrated that standard thyroid tests do not correlate well with tissue thyroid levels, which causes inaccurate diagnoses.

Doctor warns that wireless technologies are greatest threat to modern health
(NaturalNews) Is a world filled with Wi-Fi signals a more dangerous, less healthy world? Yes, it is, according to a number of top experts who have spoken recently about the issue. In this video, Dr. Stephen Sinatra, one of the nation's top "integrative" cardiologists, says that "wireless technologies" are "the greatest threat to health in this millennium."

Are Illinois Lawmakers Supporting Big Pharma in Push to Mandate More Children Vaccinated?
Health Impact News - When one looks at the current FIVE new bills being proposed in Illinois to mandate and increase vaccinations for children, one has to wonder who is really profiting from these proposed new laws?? If you live in Illinois, do you believe that you need a new law in your state to protect DENTISTS from any liability due to injuries resulting from vaccines when they give them away FREE in public clinics?... Why should dentists be administering vaccines to begin with? Who really profits from this bill?

Research: Antipsychotic Meds Cause Hopelessness, “Zombie-Like” State
The New American - A recent MedicalXpress.com article highlights startling research on the serious side effects of antipsychotic medications. In addition, many of the medications are failing to relieve the symptoms for which they were prescribed. Researchers at Australia’s Murdoch University in Perth and the University of Queensland found that the side effects of the antipsychotics include Parkinsonism, restlessness, involuntary movements, weight gain, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, constipation, dry mouth. and dizziness. The most prevalent side effect is extreme fatigue, which leaves many in a “zombie state,” they report.

Cracking the Cholesterol Myth: How Statins Harm The Body and Mind
Green Med Info - A new study finds the chemical war against cholesterol using statin drugs was justified through statistical deception and the cover up of over 300 adverse health effects documented in the biomedical literature.

Consumers Boycott Kellogg’s GMOs, and Now Retailers Do Too!
Natural Society - Championing consumers of the United States who refuse to eat GMO foods, Sunshine Natural Foods and Vitamins is boycotting Kellogg’s, including the Kashi brand which was touted as ‘organic’ by the company, but was exposed as fraud. Sure, it’s a small natural foods store in Grants Pass, Oregon, but it counts!... Another New England grocery store decided to remove Kashi brand from its shelves just as sunshine Natural Foods did. They won’t sell the public toxic ingredients that they don’t want.

Nation’s Second Largest Retailer to Double Organics Immediately
Natural Society - You voted with your dollar. You spoke out on social media. You educated your co-workers who were eating a junk-food diet. Thanks to this influence, organic food sales are exploding, so one of the largest retailers in the US is ‘doubling down’ their investment in organic and sustainable products.
 


Monday - March 2, 2015 - Today in History:

1807 - The U.S. Congress passed an act to "prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States... from any foreign kingdom, place, or country."
1836 - Texas declared its independence from Mexico and an ad interim government was formed.
1861 - The U.S. Congress created the Territory of Nevada.
1877 - In the U.S., Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election by the U.S. Congress. Samuel J. Tilden, however, had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.
1899 - U.S. President McKinley signed a measure that created the rank of Admiral for the U.S. Navy. The first admiral was George Dewey.
1900 - The U.S. Congress voted to give $2 million in aid to Puerto Rico.
1917 - Citizens of Puerto Rico were granted U.S. citizenship with the enactment of the Jones Act.
1939 - The Massachusetts legislature voted to ratify the Bill of Rights to the Constitution. These first 10 amendments had gone into effect 147 years before.
1946 - Ho Chi Minh was elected President of Vietnam.
1949 - The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II landed in Fort Worth, TX. The American plane had completed the first non-stop around-the-world flight.
1983 - The U.S.S.R. performed an underground nuclear test.
1985 - The U.S. government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus that allowed possibly contaminated blood to be kept out of the blood supply.
1998 - Images from the American spacecraft Galileo indicated that the Jupiter moon Europa has a liquid ocean and a source of interior heat.
2003 - Over the Sea of Japan, there was a confrontation between four armed North Korean fighter jets and a U.S. RC-135S Cobra Ball. No shots were fired in the encounter in international airspace about 150 miles off North Korea's coast. The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights on March 12.
2004 - NASA announced that the Mars rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that water had existed on Mars in the past.
2011 - The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that members of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church have a First Amendment right to picket the funeral of a Marine.

World News

Iraqi Army Downs Two British Planes Carrying Weapons for ISIL Terrorists
Global Research - al-Anbar province: numerous flights by US-led coalition planes airdrop weapons and supplies for ISIL in terrorist-held areas. There are no reports in the Western mainstream media pertaining to this issue. This report is based on statements emanating from the Iraq parliament, with photographic evidence. We have not been in a position to corroborate this report by FARS News.

‘All about money’: NATO spending debate focuses on ‘Russian threat’
RT - NATO member-states unwilling or unable to help boost the military spending are being accused of ignoring the “Russian threat,” that has re-emerged as the core of the alliance’s agenda to boost arms sales. A report saying one of major NATO funding contributors, the UK, could fail to fulfil the commitment to spend 2 percent of its GDP on the alliance in 2015 came as a bombshell for some of the West’s military elite.

US, Allies Undermine 'Nuclear Free' World, Moscow Committed to Disarmament - Lavrov
Sputnik News - Unilateral actions by the United States and its allies in regard to missile defense systems are influencing strategic stability by undermining the outlook of reaching a world free of nuclear weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.

Germany’s Bundestag okays Greece’s bailout extension
RT - In the biggest majority for any eurozone rescue package vote so far, members of the German parliament have almost unanimously approved the reform plan for Greece, which paves the way for a four–month loan extension. Other EU countries will also vote on the plan approved by the European Commission on Tuesday, but the vote of Germany , Greece’s main creditor, makes the overall approval almost certain. Germany has been the biggest advocate of Greece complying with its obligations and paying off its €317 billion debt. The newly elected government in Greece has promised to end the era of austerity in the country.

Russia: US-Backed Opposition Leader Gunned Down in Moscow
Tony Cartalucci - US-backed opposition groups in Russia have so far failed utterly to produce results. Their transparent subservience to Washington coupled with their distasteful brand of politics has left a rather unpleasant taste in the mouth of most Russians. Each attempt to spread the "virus" of color revolution to Moscow, as US Senator John McCain called it, has failed - and each attempt has fallen progressively flatter.
* Related: Putin Predicted Washington Would Employ Assassination Tactic Against Russia — Paul Craig Roberts

US State Department Admits Russia had Nothing to Gain from Killing Boris Nemtsov
Tony Cartalucci - Perhaps believing by virtue of having admitted the murder of Russian opposition member Boris Nemtsov in Russia’s capital of Moscow Friday evening in no way served the Russian government’s best interests, the US State Department believes it can deflect guilt from being shifted towards its direction.

Boris Nemtsov’s Killers Tried to Destabilize Russia – Gorbachev
Sputnik News - Soviet ex-President Mikhail Gorbachev sees the assassination of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov as an attempt to destabilize Russia. He also warns against calls to give excessive powers to law enforcement and security agencies. "The assassination of Boris Nemtsov is an attempt to complicate the situation in the country, even to destabilize it by ratcheting up tensions between the government and the opposition,” Gorbachev said.

Caught On Tape: The Moment Boris Nemtsov Was Assassinated
Zero Hedge - As the world contemplates the various ‘provocation’ scenarios - a Russian act, a CIA act meant to look like a Russian act, or a Russian act meant to look like a CIA act? - the following clip suggests this was anything but an ad hoc shooting…

Our Middle Eastern “Allies” Fund Terrorists Abroad So They Won’t Attack Them At Home
Washington's Blog - Dr Mahmoud Othman, a veteran member of the Iraqi Kurdish leadership who recently retired from the Iraqi parliament, said there was a misunderstanding as to why Gulf countries paid off IS [the Islamic State]. It is not only that donors are supporters of IS, but that the movement “gets money from the Arab countries because they are afraid of it”, he says. “Gulf countries give money to Da’esh so that it promises not to carry out operations on their territory.”

ExxonMobil admits $1bn lost from anti-Russia sanctions
RT - The contracts with Russia’s biggest oil company Rosneft damaged by the West’s anti-Russian sanctions have cost ExxonMobil $1 billion, the company said in its annual report.

Crude price shock sends Canadian oil service companies into whirlwind
RT - The crude oil price collapse has forced some Canadian oil service companies to cut their workforces, budgets, and salaries, as their energy-producing customers have been struggling with their own budget cuts and market uncertainty.... Oilfield services and hydraulic fracturing company Calfrac announced on Wednesday that it will cut over $25 million from its general and administrative costs, as it released its fourth quarter revenue report. The firm will be slashing executive salaries by around 10 percent and directors’ pay by 20 percent starting in April. Calfrac was also forced to shut down its operations in Colombia.

Nippon Airways to Feed Customers Fukushima Food
Natural Society - If you’ve understandably compared airplane food to tasteless cardboard, you’ve at least been eating cuisine that wasn’t contaminated with radiation. Now, Nippon Airways Co. Ltd. (NAC) will be serving their customers in the friendly skies ‘Fukushima food.’ From this March until May, they will feature food from the Fukushima prefecture, part of a marketing campaign that was meant to highlight food from all over Japan. In their internationally-connecting lounges, NAC will serve Fukushima peaches, tomatoes, and beef, as well as 12 kinds of rice wine.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Department of Homeland Security: What is it Good For?
Ron Paul Institute - Late Friday night, Congress passed legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security for one week. This vote followed weeks of debate over efforts to attach a prohibition on funding President Obama’s executive order granting amnesty to certain illegal immigrants to the Homeland Security funding bill. Despite the heated rhetoric from both sides, no one seriously believes that Congress will allow Homeland Security funding to lapse.

LAPD fatally shoot a homeless man on skid row
LA Times - Los Angeles police shot and killed a homeless man on skid row Sunday during an intense altercation caught on video in which an officer can be heard twice shouting "drop the gun!" The dramatic video... captures the final seconds of the confrontation, showing four officers engaged in a frantic struggle with the man, wrestling him to the ground. Police were still analyzing the audio, but "it's clear there was a struggle for the officer's gun," Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Andrew Smith said. No other gun was found at the scene.
* Related: Protests over LAPD fatally shooting mentally ill homeless man

A little-known Virginia law is letting citizens start their own police force, carry a badge and arrest people
National Post - Michael Youlen stopped a driver in a Manassas, Virginia, apartment complex on a recent night and wrote the man a ticket for driving on a suspended license. With a badge on his chest and a gun on his hip, Youlen gave the driver a stern warning to stay off the road. The stop was routine police work, except for one fact: Youlen is not a Manassas officer. The citation came courtesy of the private force he created that, until recently, he called the “Manassas Junction Police Department.”

Israel Lobbies for More Missile Defense Funds Than Obama Sought
Bloomberg - For the second consecutive year, Israeli officials have asked the U.S. Congress to add more than $300 million to President Barack Obama’s budget request for their nation’s missile-defense programs. The $317 million wish list that Israeli’s missile defense chief gave lawmakers this month is in addition to the $158 million the Pentagon proposed for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

Should Creation Teacher Spend the Rest of His Life in Prison?
Health Impact News - FreeKentHovind.com is reporting that Mr. Hovind was moved to an isolation cell yesterday (7 by 9 cell shared by 2 people) in Santa Rosa County Jail. He has to sleep on the floor and he no longer has phone access (he granted several interviews to the alternative media by phone last week). Supporters are asking people to call the jail (850)983-1100 and ask why he is in isolation and if he can be moved out of isolation into a dorm with phone access. Kent Hovind is a Creation Science teacher and Baptist minister who became well known for debating university professors and refuting Darwinian evolutionary theory. He has served eight years of a ten-year prison sentence, and he is now fighting a new charge that would put him behind bars for the rest of his life.... Mr. Hovind spoke on the Joyce Riley “Power Hour” talk radio show [video] this past week from county jail.

'I sat in that place for three days': Chicagoans detail abusive confinement inside police 'black site'
The Guardian - A Chicago man says he was confined for three days – shackled, interrogated and fed only twice, his whereabouts unknown – inside the police “black site” at the epicentre of public outcry over allegations of abuse said to focus on minority citizens. Four black Chicagoans have now come forward to the Guardian detailing off-the-books ordeals at the facility, including another who describes being detained in “a big cage” with his wrists cuffed to a bench so he couldn’t move.
* Related video: 'It's a domestic black site': inside one protester's secretive US police detention

Private police carry guns and make arrests, and their ranks are swelling
Washington Post - Michael Youlen stopped a driver in a Manassas apartment complex on a recent night and wrote the man a ticket for driving on a suspended license. With a badge on his chest and a gun on his hip, Youlen gave the driver a stern warning to stay off the road. The stop was routine police work, except for one fact: Youlen is not a Manassas officer. The citation came courtesy of the private force he created that, until recently, he called the “Manassas Junction Police Department.”

West Virginia Senate: The 2nd Amendment Is A Concealed Carry Permit
Breitbart - On February 27 the West Virginia senate passed a bill to eliminate the need for obtaining a permit to to carry a concealed handgun, citing the 2nd Amendment as reason enough to exercise an "inherent right."

Election News

VIDEO: The Jeb Bush Protest You Didn't See
CPAC 2015, Former Governor of Florida and Grandson of Prescott Bush, walked out on stage with media personality Sean Hannity to try and help him through this event. After all, the Bush family isn't popular even when it comes to most neo-cons and teo-cons. Jeb is Heckled, Booed and there was even a walk out and protest organized for when he started speaking. Not sure how the corporate owned outlets will spin this, but I highly doubt you'll see this !!

Senator Rand Paul wins CPAC's 2015 straw poll in boost to 2016 presidential prospects
(Reuters) - Senator Rand Paul won a straw poll of conservative activists on Saturday, giving his potential bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 a boost, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker came in second in a surprising show of strength.
* Related: Senator Rand Paul CPAC 2015 Speech

Jeb Bush Fails CPAC, Can’t Even Stack Straw Poll Successfully
Breitbart - Republican voters rejected former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the straw poll, as he earned only 8 percent of the vote and came in fifth. That came as, according to reports and several other campaigns, Bush attempted to rig the straw poll by busing in “supporters” from Washington, D.C., and K Street. So, after subtracting out those his campaign packed into the Gaylord hotel in National Harbor, his support among conservatives is even more smaller than it appears.

Economy & Business

Billionaire Warns Of Total Collapse End Game Scenario: ‘No Way Out… Your Money Will Be Worthless’
Mac Slavo - According to billionaire resource investor Carlo Civelli there is likely no way out for central banks which have spent the last several years printing money hand over fist. Over his decades’ long career Civelli has either managed or financed over 20 companies, many of which now have market capitalizations in the billions of dollars, so he knows a thing or two about investing during boom times, as well as busts. In his most recent interview with Future Money Trends he warns of an endgame scenario that is nothing short of a total collapse. And here’s the scary part: Civelli says that even gold may not be a safe haven should the worst case scenario play out...

Meet Linebarger - The Government's Biggest Private Debt Collector
Zero Hedge - As CNN reports, based in Texas, Linebarger works for 2,300 clients nationwide and collects $1 billion for its clients each year. But the collection system is far from perfect, leading to some nightmare scenarios. Despite decades of scandals over the way the firm gets business (and even jail time for one of its top executives) Linebarger still lands lucrative government contracts...

Meanwhile In California, Unambiguously Ungood...
Zero Hedge - AP reports, for Californians, it's considerably worse as gas prices have soared 60c to $3.23 per gallon in the last few weeks. Between refinery shutdowns (due to strikes and explosions) removing 17% of California's production, and the seasonal shift to the less-polluting summer blend of gas mandated in California, supply remains drastically short spiking prices 20-30c on Thursday alone as one gas station owner exclaimed, in 48 years "I've never seen anything like this kind of [price spike]."

Good News! Tax Audits Will Dwindle to Record Low Levels This Year
Activist Post - The audit rate, the percentage of individuals’ tax returns IRS revenue agents examined either in person or via correspondence, fell to 0.86% last year, the data show. That represents the lowest rate since at least fiscal year 2005.... The audit declines coincide with recent drops in IRS funding and a steady falloff in revenue agents. It also comes as the tax agency seeks congressional approval for a fiscal year 2016 budget hike after being buffeted over dwindling taxpayer services and allegations it targeted conservative tax-exempt groups for increased scrutiny.

Energy & Environment

EPA sued over shrinking monarch butterfly population
RT - A leading environmental group has filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency, accusing regulators of dismissing dangers about a certain chemical used in herbicides, including Monsanto’s widely used Roundup. The lawsuit, filed Friday by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in federal district court in New York, argues that an ingredient in the herbicide – glyphosate – has had devastating effects on monarch butterflies, causing the population to halve in seven years.

Science & Technology

"This Is Just The Beginning" - Strange Events Happening At Alternative News Sites - Kill Switch Being Tested?
All News PipeLine - Over the last three days since the FCC voted for "net neutrality," some very strange events have occurred, including alternative news radio shows to simply go off air for minutes at a time, a popular website that conducted a hard hitting interview with the former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration Paul Criag Roberts completely went down and the article could not be accessed throughout the day, just to come back up, then return an error again on reload, a site that linked to that piece also went "goopy," according to the Hawk video below, Facebook has had numerous reports over at DownDetector.com, just to name a few events that could be indicative of the US Government testing their ability to control what Internet users see and what they don't.

NSA spying program renewed ahead of congressional showdown
RT - A federal court has renewed a National Security Agency program allowing for the bulk collection of Americans' phone records, highlighting a battle between the White House and Congress to reform the nature of mass surveillance in the country. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) gave a green light to the government to let the US telephone metadata collection program continue until June 1, when the provisions in the Patriot Act legalizing the practice will expire.

Your voice-to-text speech is recorded and sent to strangers
Boing Boing - Redditor Fallenmyst just started a job at Walk N'talk Technologies, where she listens to randomly sampled speech-to-text recordings from our mobile phones, correcting machine conversions. If you use text-to-speech to send intimate messages, to discuss confidential material, or to say things that you don't want anyone to hear, be advised: everything you say to your phone is liable to being listened to later by bored strangers (and that goes double for your Samsung smart TV).

Health

Measles hysteria leads daycare directors to order parents to subject children to invasive blood draws
(NaturalNews) The call for forced vaccinations is not enough. Now everyone must prove they aren't sick by submitting to forced blood draws!... The Samohi Infant Toddler Center has become a testing ground for a new slew of forced medical intervention and surveillance. Officials are now requiring that infants' blood be drawn to monitor them before they can be approved to interact with the public.

Flashback: Merck created hit list to 'destroy,' 'neutralize' or 'discredit' dissenting doctors
(NaturalNews) Merck made a "hit list" of doctors who criticized Vioxx, according to testimony in a Vioxx class action case in Australia. The list, emailed between Merck employees, contained doctors' names with the labels "neutralise," "neutralised" or "discredit" next to them.

If vaccines are safe, why has the US gov. paid out $3 BILLION to vaccine-injured families?
(NaturalNews) Vaccines are a very imperfect science, despite the good intentions of healthcare providers and parents seeking to protect their children from disease. Adverse, life-changing and deadly effects of vaccines are more common than ever. In fact, the US government has had to pay out over $3 billion to vaccine-injured families since 1986. Still think vaccines are safe?

Charlotte Observer Reports on Child Crippled by Vaccines and Awarded $2 Million in Damages
Health Impact News - The Charlotte Observer has done something that is quite rare: they have reported the truth about a child who received the recommended childhood vaccines, and then became brain damaged. The family was awarded a $2 million settlement in vaccine court, which the Charlotte Observer also reported.

28 daily 'hits' that predispose us to aggressive cancer growth
(NaturalNews) When examining such an exhaustive list, it is important to understand that as long as someone avoids being hit by most of these factors (and doesn't expose themselves to concentrated "doses" of any of them on a daily basis), it's possible they won't develop symptomatic cancer in their lifetime.

Meta-Study On Genetically Modified Food: Virtually All Independent Scientists Are Concerned
Washington's Blog - The only consensus that GM food is safe is among industry-funded researchers. By way of background, genetically engineered foods have been linked to obesity, cancer, liver failure, infertility and all sorts of other diseases. And genetically-engineered meat isn’t even tested for human safety. And a leading risk expert says that genetically modified foods could wipe out the global ecosystem. But government agencies like the FDA go to great lengths to cover up the potential health damage from genetically modified foods, and to keep the consumer in the dark about what they’re really eating.

The Shocking Difference Between Organic & Non-GMO Labels – It’s Huge!
Food Babe - The “Non-GMO Project” label only verifies that a product doesn’t contain genetically modified (GMO) ingredients (or technically less than 0.9% GMOs). While that is good, it’s not the whole story about what the product contains, how it was produced, and where it came from. But when I have a choice, I always choose organic food because of these reasons… 10 reasons why “Organic” beats “Non-GMO” every time...

Is Your Tea Full of Pesticides?
Natural Society - If you are worried about GMO sugar beets, corn, or soy, you should think again when it comes to steeping your favorite cup of tea. Herbs like spearmint or peppermint are allowed 100 times higher the levels of glyphosate than some GM foods, and the first time pesticides are washed off of these herbs is often in your cup.

5 Food-Medicines That Could Quite Possibly Save Your Life
Green Med Info - Some of the most powerful medicines on the planet are masquerading around as foods and spices. While they do not lend themselves to being patented, nor will multi-billion dollar human clinical trials ever be funded to prove them efficacious, they have been used since time immemorial to both nourish our bodies, and to prevent and treat disease.

How Root Canals Could Spark Autoimmune Diseases
Natural Society - Are root canals safe? Dr. George Meinig, author of Root Canal Cover-Up, was a founding member of the American Association of Endodontics. He quit the association later in his career after he saw firsthand the adverse affects that root canals have on the immune system. Dr. Meinig also witnessed the irreparable damage to the jaw bone caused by the infected cavitation sites where root canaled teeth once sat.

How lack of sleep leads to irritability, anxiety, depression, and obesity
(NaturalNews) Sleep helps to regulate the hormone cortisol. The right amount of cortisol enables us to metabolize proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. It is needed to regulate blood sugar and blood pressure. Even the immune system is dependent upon proper levels of cortisol for optimum functioning. But lack of sleep can cause the body to produce too much. Excessive cortisol makes us irritable, anxious, and depressed.

Beware the dangerous ingredients in pickles and pickle juice
(NaturalNews) If you are one of the many people who like pickles and/or pickle juice, you may want to think again after a look at the ingredients commonly found in commercial pickles and their juice. In addition to water, cucumbers and distilled cucumbers, pickle juice typically contains...

Pet News

Don't Bring Home a New Dog Before Locking Away These 10 Items
Dr. Becker - Bringing home a new dog is an exciting event. Remember to proactively lock up these 10 items that could mean impending doom for your curious new pet... including some with no antidote, and others you might never suspect.

Roundup Ready Pet Products
Susan Thixton - If your pet's food, treats, or even cat litter contains corn, soy, alfalfa or canola - chances are your pet is consuming Genetically Modified Crops and the risks associated with them. Some words of caution to GMO's from a Holistic Veterinarian.
 


PAST NEWS
 

 

 
The Power Hour:
Show-Schedule
(7-10am CST)
···Listen Live

Listen FREE thru Global Star Satellite Feed

 

 
 
 

 

   

 
         


All logos and trademarks in this site are property of their respective owner.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

Copyright © 2007. The Power Hour. All rights reserved.