MAY 2014

Friday - May 30, 2014 - Today In History:
1783 - The first daily newspaper was published in the U.S. by Benjamin Towner called "The Pennsylvania Evening Post"
1854 - The U.S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established.
1868 - Memorial Day was observed widely for the first time in the U.S.
1879 - William Vanderbilt renamed New York City's Gilmore’s Garden to Madison Square Garden.
1883 - Twelve people were trampled to death in New York City in a stampede when a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge was in danger of collapsing occurred.
1896 - The first automobile accident occurred in New York City.
1912 - The U.S. Marines were sent to Nicaragua to protect American interests.
1913 - The First Balkan War ended.
1921 - The U.S. Navy transferred the Teapot Dome oil reserves to the Department of the Interior.
1922 - The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC.
1943 - American forces secured the Aleutian island of Attu from the Japanese during World War II.
1958 - Unidentified soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean conflicts were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
1983 - Peru's President Fernando Belaunde Terry declared a state of emergency and suspended civil rights after bombings by leftist rebels.
1989 - The "Goddess of Democracy" statue (33 feet height) was erected in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.
1997 - Jesse K. Timmendequas was convicted in Trenton, NJ, of raping and strangling a 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka. The 1994 murder inspired "Megan's Law," requiring that communities be notified when sex offenders move in.
2002 - A solemn, wordless ceremony marked the end of the cleanup at Ground Zero in New York, 8 1/2 months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
2003 - Peter Jennings was sworn in as a U.S. citizen.
2006 - A jury in Rockville, Md., convicted John Allen Muhammad of six of the Washington-area sniper killings.
2011 - Germany announced plans to abandon nuclear power over the next 11 years, outlining an ambitious strategy in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster to replace atomic power with renewable energy sources.

Military op to continue in E. Ukraine until 'stability' restored - defense minister
RT - Kiev army will continue military operation against the country’s east until the situation in the region stabilizes, says Ukraine’s Defense Minister.

VIDEO: US officials confirm American citizen was involved in Syria attack
Press TV - US officials have confirmed that an American citizen fighting along with Takfiri insurgents in Syria was killed in a bomb attack in the northern province of Idlib. The officials declined to identify the citizen, but sources near to al-Nusra Front militants said the American man went by the name of Abu Huraira al-Amriki.

Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan sign ‘epoch' Eurasian Economic Union
RT - Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan signed the historic Eurasian Economic Union which will come into effect in January 2015. Cutting down trade barriers and comprising over 170 million people it will be the largest common market in the ex-Soviet sphere.

‘Tiny elite, huge proletariat’: UK middle class to disappear in 30 years, govt advisor says
RT - High property prices will wipe out the British middle class within the next 30 years, according to a UK government advisor. He says society will be left with a “tiny elite” and a “huge sprawling proletariat.”

14 military killed in chopper downed in E. Ukraine - acting president
RT - Fourteen Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in a helicopter crash near the city of Slavyansk in the Donetsk Region, according to the acting president of Ukraine, Aleksandr Turchinov.

Stalinist Show Trial: China holds mass sentencing of 55 people at football stadium
StratRisks - In a spectacle designed to show their resolve against terrorism, Chinese authorities held a public sentencing in a football stadium in the northwestern Xinjiang region of 55 people convicted of violent crimes. More than 7,000 people watched from the stands in Yili prefecture during Tuesday’s sentencing, and videos were distributed by police Wednesday to Chinese media.

Underwater search for MH370 ends without success
Press TV - The Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC), which is in charge of a multinational search for the missing Flight MH370, said on Thursday that it completed the underwater search in the Indian Ocean without any success.

The 1961 Speech That Got JFK Killed: This is a portion of the speech that President John F. Kennedy gave at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on April 27, 1961. "The President and the Press" before the American Newspaper Publishers Association.
**Related: Benjamin Freedman's 1961 Speech at the Willard Hotel

Bilderberg Files Caught on Camera
Paul Joseph Watson - Infowars captured Bilderberg member Ed Balls’ conference files on camera during a security mix up when Balls couldn’t find his pass to enter the Marriott in Copenhagen. The sheer volume of files disproves the notion that Bilderberg is a mere talking shop.

Seattle police sue Eric Holder over crackdown on powers
Washington Times - Police in Seattle say new rules stemming from a settlement with the Justice Department over their alleged excessive use of force have now tipped the scales in favor of criminals and that officers are now being unduly hampered in performing their jobs and carrying out arrests.

Toddler critically burned during SWAT raid
wsbtv.com - A family says a SWAT team raided their home in the middle of the night and seriously injured a 19-month-old boy with a stun grenade.

America Has Been At War My Whole Life
Activist Post - By Melissa Melton - But even before America had such a nebulous new enemy — “terror” — we have long been at some type of conflict or war. I was born in 1980. Scanning the list, I see that in my 34 years, there isn’t a single year I’ve been alive that my country hasn’t been fighting someone, somewhere.

YouTube: Join Ron Paul at LPAC 2014
Join us in Alexandria, Virginia, this September 18-20 for the 2014 Liberty Political Action Conference and learn from the best how to become the most effective grassroots activist possible! Visit www.LPAC.com for more information.

DoD Directive Grants Military Authority to ‘Quell Large-scale, Unexpected Civil Disturbances’
Adan Salazar - Despite President Obama going to great lengths to assuage the American people’s concerns with the increased militarization of federal agencies, a recently disclosed military directive suggests those fears could be legitimate.

Biden challenges graduating AF Academy cadets to create ‘new world order’
12160.info - Under a blazing sun, Vice President Joe Biden challenged graduating Air Force Academy cadets on Wednesday to help create a “new world order for the 21st century.”

Scores of undocumented migrants dropped off in Arizona
azcentral.com - Scores of undocumented immigrants from Central America have been released at Greyhound Lines Inc. bus stations in Tucson and Phoenix over the past several days after they were flown to Arizona from south Texas, officials acknowledged.

NSA releases Snowden email after denying its existence
RT - The Office of the Director of the National Intelligence announced through its website on Thursday this week that it has located a lone email inquiry sent by Mr. Snowden in April 2013 to the Office of General Counsel, confirming in part allegations the former contractor made during an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams that aired Wednesday evening.

NBC Censors Snowden’s Critical 9/11 Comments from Prime Time Audience
Mikael Thalen - “They found that we had all of the information we needed as an intelligence community… to detect this plot.” Statements made by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden regarding the 9/11 terror attacks were edited out of his NBC Nightly News interview with Brian Williams Wednesday in what appears to be an attempt to bolster legitimacy for the agency’s controversial surveillance programs.

Obama Considered Using Military Against Bundy and Supporters
Kurt Nimmo - Bill Gertz, writing for The Washington Times, reports the Obama administration had considered using the military during a standoff between Cliven Bundy and the BLM in Nevada in April.

Americans have First Amendment right to film police, US appeals court rules
The Daily Sheeple - A federal appeals court has ruled that Americans have the right to videotape police officers in public, thereby allowing a court case brought against New Hampshire police to progress.

Man Defends Family During Break-In, Saves Younger Siblings
The Daily Sheeple - A 22-year-old man defended his family during a shootout in his California home on Tuesday, killing one man and sending another to the hospital.... It isn’t hard to imagine how differently this would have played out if the 22-year-old hadn’t had access to a gun.

Mockingbird Media Pushes “Transgender” as Next Civil Rights Movement
Infowars.com - Time, the weekly news magazine founded by CIA operative Henry Luce, is pushing the transgender agenda as the next civil rights movement.

Rumblings in Precious Metals Markets A Sign of Coming Monetary System Collapse
Activist Post - The closing of the London Silver Fix, gold manipulation lawsuits in New York, Austria wanting to audit its gold held by England, Barclays being fined over gold manipulation, and China wanting more of a say over the gold price are all indicative of the coming US dollar and fiat currency collapse.

Economists: The U.S. Economy Shrank In Q1, But Better Days Are Just Around The Corner
Economic Collapse - During the first three months of this year, the U.S. economy contracted at a 1 percent annual rate. Despite this, mainstream economists flooded the mainstream media with assurances that much better days are just around the corner on Thursday.

Capital Controls Rolling Into High Gear Under FATCA
Activist Post - The traditional banking system was already bad enough, but now with banks around the world rushing to comply with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) it is beginning to reach extreme levels. And it isn't just affecting the most financially restricted people on Earth: US citizens ... it is affecting everyone.

US economy contracts for the first time since 2011
RT - The US Department of Commerce said Thursday that the economy contracted between January and March of this year at a rate of 1 percent, defying initial estimates from economists who expected to see a slight uptake during the first quarter of 2014.

VA Awarded $3M in Prizes in Appointment Scheduling App Contest in 2013
Weekly Standard - In October 2013, as the nation was focused on the deeply flawed rollout of the Healthcare.gov Obamacare marketplace, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) awarded $3 million in prizes to three participants in the agency's Medical Appointment Scheduling Contest. The contest was announced in 2012 to help the VA make the move to a more modern and flexible scheduling system...

Fight Intensifies Over California Water
Courthouse News - Seventeen California water districts sued the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, claiming its unprecedented diversion of water to farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley will leave them without any water from Millerton Lake this year, killing orchards and vineyards on the east side.

Washington health officials struggle to find cause of mysterious birth defects
(NaturalNews) An old nuclear site in the state of Washington is becoming more controversial than ever. Counties clustered around the nuclear site in south central Washington, including Benton, Yakima and Franklin, are bringing forth alarming numbers of babies born with mysterious birth defects.

West Texas rapidly running out of water - less than 90-day supply remaining in dozens of towns
(NaturalNews) At least 33 communities in Texas could soon be completely out of water, some within three short months. Others say they could go dry in just 45 days. Pebble Beach, a town northwest of San Antonio, has had their request approved for a $350,000 grant from the U.S. Department.

Thursday - May 29, 2014 - Today In History:
1721 - South Carolina was formally incorporated as a royal colony.
1765 - Patrick Henry denounced the Stamp Act before Virginia's House of Burgesses.
1790 - Rhode Island became the last of the original thirteen colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1848 - Wisconsin became the 30th state to join the United States.
1912 - Fifteen women were dismissed from their jobs at the Curtis Publishing Company in Philadelphia, PA, for dancing the Turkey Trot while on the job.
1916 - The official flag of the president of the United States was adopted.
1932 - World War I veterans began arriving in Washington, DC. to demand cash bonuses they were not scheduled to receive for another 13 years.
1965 - Ralph Boston set a world record in the broad jump at 27-feet, 4-3/4 inches, at a meet held in Modesto, CA.
1974 - U.S. President Nixon agreed to turn over 1,200 pages of edited Watergate transcripts.
1981 - The U.S. performed a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site.
1986 - Colonel Oliver North told National Security Advisor William McFarlane that profits from weapons sold to Iran were being diverted to the Contras.
1988 - U.S. President Reagan began his first visit to the Soviet Union in Moscow.
1988 - NBC aired "To Heal A Nation," the story of Jan Scruggs' effort to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1990 - Boris Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian republic by the Russian parliament.
1999 - Space shuttle Discovery completed the first docking with the International Space Station.
2001 - In New York, four followers of Osama bin Laden were convicted of a global conspiracy to murder Americans. The crimes included the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 people.

VIDEO: US House passes Venezuela sanctions bill
Press TV - The bill, passed by voice vote on Wednesday, instructs the Obama administration to prepare a list of alleged human rights abusers in the government of President Nicolas Maduro, freeze any assets they hold in American banks and ban US visits.

Commuters Herded Like Cattle as China Escalates its Own “War on Terror”
libertyblitzkrieg.com - With China’s economy in free fall and increased violence occurring, it appears the leadership there is taking a page out of our post 9/11 playbook.

Detected pings not from missing plane black box: US official
Press TV - The US Navy’s Deputy Director of Ocean Engineering Michael Dean said on Thursday that there is now broad agreement that the pings, previously thought to have come from the Malaysian plane’s black box, were probably emitted by the search ship itself.

Three Chinese Nuclear Missile Submarines Photographed in South China Sea
freebeacon.com - China has deployed three nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines to a naval base in the South China Sea, according to a recent photo of the vessels that appeared on the Internet.

Putin Says Russia, China Need To Ensure Security Of Their Gold Reserves
Blacklisted News - "For us (Russia and China) it is important to deposit those (gold and currency reserves) in a rational and secure way," he said. "And we together need to think of how to do that keeping in mind the uneasy situation in the global economy."

EU puts third round sanctions against Russia on pause
RT - The European Union is to delay further sanctions against Russia, as Moscow signaled it is ready to cooperate with Ukraine's likely President Petro Poroshenko.

Rogue Libyan general launches air strikes against Islamist militia camp
StratRisks - Forces loyal to a rogue former Libyan general carried out an air raid yesterday on a Islamist militia camp in Benghazi. Two airstrikes hit the compound as part of Gen Khalifa Haftar’s offensive against Islamists.

Afghanistan supplies its first ever domestic refined oil to the market
StratRisks - According to Head of Afghanistan’s oil and gas companies Azrakhsh Hafizi, over 5,000 tons of oil obtained from Amu Darya basin were sent to Kam International Oil for refinery. He added about 2,500 tons of refined oil would be supplied in the market.

Majority of CIA Drone Attacks in Pakistan Hit Homes
AllGov - • Sixty-one percent of drone strikes in Pakistan targeted domestic buildings, with at least 132 houses destroyed, in more than 380 strikes. • At least 222 civilians are estimated to be among the 1,500 or more people killed in attacks on such buildings. • The time of an attack affects how many people—and how many civilians—are likely to die. Strikes that took place in the evening, when families are likely to be at home, were particularly deadly.

Snowden is a National Security State Asset
Kurt Nimmo - Edward Snowden told Brian Williams and NBC Night News he is a trained intelligence operative who worked for the CIA, NSA and DIA. He made the admission during an interview as part of an effort to bolster his credibility. Instead, the revelation has destroyed the claim he is an independent and impartial whistleblower.

Tritium levels at Fukushima No. 1 top Pacific Ocean dumping limit, Tepco admits
Japan Times - Water sampled from a well at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has been found to contain levels of radioactive tritium that exceeds the limit for dumping it into the Pacific, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

Waves of immigrant minors present crisis for Obama, Congress
(Reuters) - Tens of thousands of children unaccompanied by parents or relatives are flooding across the southern U.S. border illegally, forcing the Obama administration and Congress to grapple with both a humanitarian crisis and a budget dilemma.

Gun bill would allow police to seize firearms, prevent purchases
policeone.com - The bill would establish a system in which concerned relatives, intimate partners or friends can notify police about someone showing a propensity toward violence, so police can investigate and seek a judge's order to seize that person's firearms and prevent any purchases.

House to Vote on Bipartisan Amendment to Stop Federal Medical Marijuana Raids
Activist Post - As early as this Thursday the U.S. House could vote on a bipartisan amendment to the Commerce-Justice-Science spending bill that would prohibit the federal government from wasting taxpayer money interfering with state medical marijuana laws.

Louisiana Lawmakers Vote to Give Themselves Exemption to Gun Bans
mediaite.com - Louisiana lawmakers have voted to ease restrictions on gun bans in public buildings. Specifically, they voted to allow Louisiana lawmakers to carry concealed weapons into public buildings, as an amendment to an existing law that prohibits anyone from being able to do that. The bill was proposed by State Senator Bret Allain, who said lawmakers need the exemption because “they often face threats of violence.”

Cliven Bundy leaves GOP, joins the Independent American Party
RT - With the Republican embrace of Cliven Bundy softening as soon as he offered his controversial views on the state of African Americans in the US, the Nevada rancher has decided to switch his allegiances.

New Jersey Assembly Unanimously Passes Bill to Legalize Selling Homemade Food
Institute for Justice - Last week, the lower house of New Jersey's legislature unanimously passed a “cottage food” bill, which would let people sell baked goods like breads, pies, cakes and cookies prepared in their home kitchens. To sell legally, one would need only a “clearly visible placard” saying the food was prepared at a private home.

Minnesota 'unsession' dumps 1,175 obsolete, silly laws
twincities.comc - It's no longer a crime in Minnesota to carry fruit in an illegally sized container. The state's telegraph regulations are gone. And it's now legal to drive a car in neutral -- if you can figure out how to do it.... They kept a law on the books that requires state Agriculture Commissioner Dave Frederickson to personally capture or destroy any wild boar that gets loose in Minneapolis or St. Paul.

Kim Kardashian’s Wedding, Kids React To Old Computers, And A Cat Plays Jenga
The Daily Sheeple - We have gotten to the point where most people in our entertainment-addicted society demand a constant diet of intellectual pablum and never even stop to think much about the really important things.

Has The Next Recession Already Begun For America’s Middle Class?
Economic Collapse - If you live in New York City, or the suburbs of Washington D.C., or you work for one of the big tech firms in the San Francisco area, you would probably respond to such a question by saying of course not. In those areas, the economy is doing great and prices for high end homes are still booming.

Death of money in 2015': Author Rickards predicts collapse of global monetary system
RT - The collapse of the monetary system awaits the world in the near future, says financial expert James Rickards. Russia and China's desire to rid the US dollar of its global reserve currency status is an early sign of the “increasingly inevitable” crisis.

Why Are Food Prices so High? Because We’re Eating Oil
The Daily Sheeple - Common-sense causes include severe weather and droughts than reduce crop yields, rising demand from the increasingly wealthy global middle class and money printing, which devalues the purchasing power of income. While these factors undoubtedly influence the cost of food, it turns out that food moves in virtual lockstep with the one master commodity in an industrialized global economy: oil.

VA Watchdog Finds 1,700 Veterans Stranded in Phoenix Health Care System
The Blaze - A report released Wednesday says the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General has discovered 1,700 veterans in the VA’s Phoenix Health Care System (HCS) who are seeking medical treatment, but have yet to be put on a wait list by the VA.

Trouble ‘Adjusting’ to Sexual Assault May Be Getting U.S. Military Members Booted Without VA Benefits
reason.com - Are dodgy diagnoses being used to save the military money on mental health care? That’s the charge from some legislators and activists, who say U.S. service members with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are being diagnosed with and discharged for “adjustment disorders” instead, and that this is especially true for those who report being sexually assaulted.

Science in Australia Concerning to Pet Owners in the US
Susan Thixton - Some recent pet food information out of Australia has some concerns for pet foods in the U.S. Sulphite preservatives used in pet foods causing "thiamine deficiency and lead to neurological problems."
 

Wednesday - May 28, 2014 - Today In History:
1774 - The First Continental Congress convened in Virginia.
1863 - The first black regiment left Boston to fight in the U.S. Civil War.
1892 - The Sierra club was organized in San Francisco, CA.
1928 - Chrysler Corporation merged with Dodge Brothers, Inc.
1937 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington, DC, signaling that vehicular traffic could cross the newly opened Golden Gate Bridge in California.
1940 - During World War II, Belgium surrendered to Germany.
1976 - The Peaceful Nuclear Explosion Treaty was signed, limiting any nuclear explosion - regardless of its purpose - to a yield of 150 kilotons.
1985 - David Jacobsen, director of the American University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, was abducted by pro-Iranian kidnappers. Released 17 months later.
1996 - U.S. President Clinton's former business partners in the Whitewater land deal were convicted of fraud.
1998 - Pakistan matched India with five nuclear test blasts. The U.S., Japan and other nations imposed economic sanctions. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said "Today, we have settled the score with India."
1998 - Dr. Susan Terebey discovered a planet outside of our solar system with the use of photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
2002 - Russia became a limited partner in NATO with the creation of the NATO-Russia Council.
2010 - Gary Coleman, the former child star of the 1970s TV sitcom "Different Strokes," died at age 42 of a brain hemorrhage.

US assembling elite special forces teams across Africa to counter Al-Qaeda – report
RT - United States special operations forces are attempting to train and install small teams of elite counter-terror commandos in four African countries in a Pentagon program aimed at combating Al-Qaeda-affiliated factions, according to The New York Times.

Secret US program revealed in Libya
Press TV - A raid by the militants in Libya on a military base where the US was covertly training local forces has led to the disclosure of the secretive American program, a report says.

Obama seeks to leave 9,800 troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014
RT - US President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday his intention to leave 9,800 troops in Afghanistan after the end of combat operations this year.

300 shells fired by Pakistan: Afghans
Press TV - Local officials in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province have charged that more than 300 rockets fired from the Pakistani side of the border have landed in part of the province within the past two days.

Biotech Companies Set to Be Given Legal Right in Decisions to Ban GM Crops in EU
Sustainable Pulse - A new GM law being discussed in Brussels this week could grant biotech companies, like Monsanto and Syngenta, unprecedented power over decisions on whether to ban genetically modified (GM) crops in Europe, according to Friends of the Earth Europe.

US sends assault ship with 1,000 Marines near Libya, asks Americans to 'depart immediately'
RT - The US is sending 1,000 Marines in an amphibious assault ship to Libya's coast as a “precautionary” move should the US embassy require evacuation, a US official said. Security concerns also led the US to suggest Americans in Libya "depart immediately."

US trains Syrian rebels in Qatar to ‘ambush' soldiers and 'finish off' the wounded – report
RT - At a secret base in Qatar, the US military is training rebels to raid Syrian government troops and vehicles, as well as to “finish off the soldiers still alive after an ambush,” first-hand interviews in a Frontline documentary have revealed.

Soros Admits Responsibility for Coup and Mass Murder in Ukraine
Kurt Nimmo - George Soros told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria over the weekend he is responsible for establishing a foundation in Ukraine that ultimately contributed to the overthrow of the country’s elected leader and the installation of a junta handpicked by the State Department.

Exxon, BP Defy White House; Extend Partnership With Russia
Zero Hedge - Several of the largest oil companies in the world are doubling down in Russia despite moves by the West to isolate Russia and its economy. ExxonMobil and BP separately signed agreements with Rosneft – Russia’s state-owned oil company – to extend and deepen their relationships for energy exploration.

First Cisco And Microsoft, Now IBM: China Orders Banks To Remove High-End IBM Servers
Zero Hedge - China has expanded its list of sanctioned companies from Microsoft to include IBM as well, following a Bloomberg report that the Chinese government is pushing domestic banks to “remove high-end servers made by International Business Machines Corp. and replace them with a local brand.”

Obama holds private lunch with foreign policy journalists
Politico - President Barack Obama held a private ninety-minute lunch meeting with foreign policy journalists on Tuesday, just before delivering a public address at which he announced plans to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2016.

Official Bilderberg 2014 Membership List Released
Infowars.com - The 62nd Bilderberg meeting is set to take place from 29 May until 1 June 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark. A total of around 140 participants from 22 countries have confirmed their attendance. As ever, a diverse group of political leaders and experts from industry, finance, academia and the media have been invited.

Bankster Globalists Are the Real “True Alpha Males”
Kurt Nimmo - Over the weekend the usual venues pushing the progressive agenda took the Elliot Rodger shooting to the next level and concluded the root cause for this sort of violence is white privilege and misogyny.

Chicago mayor wants gun stores isolated, inspected, sales videotaped
guns.com - Following a ruling by a federal court to allow gun stores in Chicago again, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is proposing strict regulations that include videotaping sales and refusing zoning in 99.5 percent of the city.

Paralyzed man raided by SWAT, sentenced to 25 years for possessing his own medicine
Police State USA - A wheelchair-bound man, suffering from paralysis, severe chronic pain, and multiple sclerosis, was raided by masked, gun-wielding agents and ultimately sentenced to 25 years in prison for possessing a one-month supply of his own doctor-prescribed painkillers.

SWAT team ambushes innocent man as he works on tractor in his driveway
Police State USA - Hytrek says he did nothing to resist. That did not stop him from becoming a bloody, mangled mess.... It turned out that one of Hytrek’s relatives had retaliated against him for previously requesting that person leave his property. That person, who had previously made false police reports, told police that Hytrek had made “terroristic threats,” according to KMTV.

13 Democratic Candidates Running from Obamacare
Breitbart - President Obama is struggling to get members of his party who are running for election in 2014 to come to his side in support of Obamacare, his signature achievement. In fact, a growing list of Democrats are trying to distance themselves from Obama's takeover of the nation's healthcare system.

Inflation Heating Up, Fed Should Raise Interest Rates Soon
Breitbart - To head off a tough bout with stagflation—slow growth and high inflation—the Federal Reserve should start raising interest rates soon.

IRS Sets Sights on Frequent Flyer Miles, Hotel Points
reason.com - Just in time for your summer vacation, the IRS is getting ready to toughen the tax treatment on frequent flyer miles and hotel loyalty reward programs.

Here Is The Mystery, And Completely Indiscriminate, Buyer Of Stocks In The First Quarter
Zero Hedge - According to the most recent CapitalIQ data, the single biggest buyer of stocks in the first quarter were none other than the companies of the S&P500 itself, which cumulatively repurchased a whopping $160 billion of their own stock in the first quarter!

Fed weighs options on how to raise U.S. rates
Robin Harding - How do you persuade people to pay for the air they breathe? That is the problem the US Federal Reserve is wrestling with, as it tries to figure out how it will eventually raise interest rates, after its quantitative easing programmes left banks saturated with reserves.

US Government Proposes To Ease Student Loan Standards Even Further
Zero Hedge - Because it worked so well for housing finance in the last bubble, the US government is poised to ease loan standards on this cycle's biggest bubble - student debt.

Too Big to Jail: Eric Holder lets Credit Suisse off easy
Blacklisted News - Credit Suisse agreed to pay $2.6 billion; that’s real money, but nothing a bank its size can’t handle. And yes, three years ago, seven midlevel Credit Suisse executives were indicted. But in the just-announced settlement, no one in top management was forced to resign.

Iraq Vet Killed In Gunfight With Police Was Turned Away by VA Hospital
time.com - Tortured by symptoms of PTSD, turned away by an overbooked Veterans Administration hospital—his mother says she pleaded with doctors to let him sleep on the hospital floor—Sims was shot by Kansas City police on Sunday after they answered a neighbor’s 911 call. Police say Sims was firing a gun from inside his parents’ home and was killed when he moved to the garage and leveled the weapon at the SWAT team.

Military Plans To Test Brain Implants To Fight Mental Disorders
npr.org - The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, is launching a $70 million program to help military personnel with psychiatric disorders using electronic devices implanted in the brain.

Widow Claims Veterans’ Hospital Police Beat Her Husband to Death
Courthouse News - After waiting for 4 hours for dialysis with a shunt in his arm, a veteran told a Veterans Administration hospital he was leaving, whereupon VA police beat the hell out of him and stomped on his carotid artery, giving him a stroke that killed him, and they lied to his wife about it, the widow claims in court.

Tuesday - May 27, 2014 - Today In History: 
1668 - Three colonists were expelled from Massachusetts for being Baptists.
1813 - Americans captured Fort George, Canada.
1907 - The Bubonic Plague broke out in San Francisco.
1919 - A U.S. Navy seaplane completed the first transatlantic flight.
1926 - Bronze figures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer were erected in Hannibal, MO.
1933 - In the U.S., the Federal Securities Act was signed. The act required the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.
1935 - The U.S. Supreme Court declared that President Franklin Roosevelt's National Industrial Recovery Act was unconstitutional.
1937 - In California, the Golden Gate Bridge was opened to pedestrian traffic. The bridge connected San Francisco and Marin County.
1941 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed an "unlimited national emergency" amid rising world tensions.
1941 - The German battleship Bismarck was sunk by British naval and air forces. 2,300 people were killed.
1942 - German General Erwin Rommel began a major offensive in Libya with his Afrika Korps.
1944 - U.S. General MacArthur landed on Biak Island in New Guinea.
1960 - A military coup overthrew the democratic government of Turkey.
1969 - Construction of Walt Disney World began in Florida.
1988 - The U.S. Senate ratified the INF treaty. The INF pact was the first arms-control agreement since the 1972 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) to receive Senate approval.
1995 - In Charlottesville, VA, Christopher Reeve was paralyzed after being thrown from his horse during a jumping event.
1997 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the sexual harassment suit filed by Paula Jones could continue while President Clinton was in office.
1998 - Michael Fortier was sentenced to 12 years in prison for not warning anyone about the plot to bomb an Oklahoma City federal building.
1999 - In The Hague, Netherlands, a war crimes tribunal indicted Slobodan Milosevic and four others for atrocities in Kosovo. It was the first time that a sitting head of state had been charged with such a crime.

Up to 100 killed in Kiev military op, Donetsk E. Ukraine - anti-govt forces
RT - More than 50 self-defense fighters and as many civilians have been killed since Ukrainian troops stepped up their offensive in the region on Monday, according to the PM of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Aleksandr Boroday.

On Cue - China Terror Attack Mars Historic Gas Deal
Blacklisted News - The attack comes in succession of a growing wave of violence being carried out by separatists in Xinjiang. A deadly knife attack in Kunming, hundreds of miles away from Xinjiang, indicated that the terrorism may spread beyond the restive northwest and into the rest of China.

Europe Voted: Anti-EU And Protest Parties Take Nearly A Third Of All Europarliament Seats
Zero Hedge - For those pressed for time, here is the one-chart post-mortem of what happened in yesterday’s elections for European Parliament: the malcontents block, or the anti-EU and protest parties, soar and now control nearly a third of all seats, up nearly by 33% from a fifth currently, in the parliament they all predominantly loathe.

Israel to ‘evict the dead’ in Bedouin village demolished over 60 times
RT - Israel is trying out a new sort of “flexible evictions” in its quest to root out the “illegal” Bedouin village of Al-Araqib, demolished 63 times to date. Now even those buried in the village cemetery are reportedly receiving eviction orders.

'Biggest yet': Greenwald to publish names of Americans whom NSA is spying on
RT - Glenn Greenwald, who helped Edward Snowden leak sensitive documents about the National Security Agency spying on its citizens, says he’s set to publish his most dramatic piece yet, which will reveal those in the USA who were targeted by the NSA.

Snowden ‘considers’ returning to US – report
RT - American whistleblower Edward Snowden is “considering” returning home to the USA under certain conditions, his lawyer told German news magazine Der Spiegel. There are negotiations," Snowden's German lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck told Der Spiegel. "Those who know the case are aware that an amicable agreement with the US authorities will be most reasonable.”

Passenger plane missed mystery drone by just 20 METRES
Daily Mail - A near collision between a passenger plane and an unregistered drone at Perth Airport has left investigators baffled, it emerged today. The Australian Transport and Safety Bureau released a statement confirming that they were unable to identify the operator of the craft nor any details about the object.

Nigeria's Boko Haram kills 28 in three village attacks
(Reuters) - Suspected Islamist Boko Haram gunmen rampaged through three villages in northern Nigeria, killing 28 people and burning houses to the ground in a pattern of violence that has become almost a daily occurrence, according to police and witnesses.

Location of missing Nigerian girls known, but use of force ruled out
The Guardian - Nigeria's military knows where the more than 200 girls abducted by Boko Haram are but has ruled out using force to rescue them, the state news agency quoted chief of defence staff Air Marshal Alex Badeh as saying on Monday.

U.S. Wars in the Middle East: Imperialism and the Battle for Water
Global Research - People who think that the West’s interventions in Iraq, Libya and Syria are only about oil are mistaken. Broadly speaking, Western interest in the Middle East is becoming increasingly about a commodity more precious than oil, namely water.

Government Plan Would Transform Israel Into The World’s First Cashless Society
Activist Post - A committee chaired by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff has come up with a three-phase plan to “all but do away with cash transactions in Israel”.

EU Industry Challenged by Supply Risks of Critical Raw Materials
StratRisks - The 2014 list includes 13 of the 14 materials identified in the previous list of 2011, with only tantalum moving out of the list due to a lower supply risk. Six new materials appear on the list: borates, chromium, coking coal, magnesite, phosphate rock and silicon metal bringing the number up to 20 raw materials which are now considered critical by the European Commission.

First Germany, Now Austria Demands An Audit Of Its Offshore Held Gold
Zero Hedge - First it was Germany, now another AAA-rated European country is starting to get concerned about its hard assets. Overnight Bloomberg reported that following in Bundesbank's footsteps, Austria will audit its gold reserves located in the UK, which represent 80% of its total gold holdings.

The Size Of The Derivatives Bubble Hanging Over The Global Economy Hits A Record High
Economic Collapse - According to the Bank for International Settlements, the total notional value of derivatives contracts around the world has ballooned to an astounding 710 trillion dollars ($710,000,000,000,000).

US House approves $600 million military aid package for Israel
Blacklisted News - Legislation obligates the president to report to Congress every 3 months on Qualitative Military Edge issues for Israel, authorizes provisions for Iron Dome, David's Sling and Arrow 3.

This Is What Happens When Young Men Are Taught That Scoring With Women Is The Ultimate Goal In Life
The Daily Sheeple - 22-year-old Elliot Rodger is the son of Hunger Games unit director Peter Rodger. He was deeply immersed in the culture of Hollywood, but he was incredibly frustrated that he was not able to have the kind of lifestyle that Hollywood had always promised him.
* Related: Rejected Brat Goes on Killing Spree Because Girls Didn’t Like Him

Gun grabbers ignore stabbing in Calif. massacre; isn’t it time to ban knives?
BizPac Review - As surely as night follows day, Saturday’s killings at the University of California-Santa Barbara by a thoroughly deranged individual brought the gun grabbers out Sunday.

Senator Moves to Reintroduce Failed Gun Bills Following California Shooting
Kurt Nimmo - Connecticut Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal told CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday he will urge Congress to take up gun legislation that failed to pass following the Sandy Hook massacre.

White House mistakenly identifies CIA chief in Afghanistan
The Washington Post - The CIA’s top officer in Kabul was exposed Saturday by the White House when his name was inadvertently included on a list provided to news organizations of senior U.S. officials participating in President Obama’s surprise visit with U.S. troops.

House of Representatives Rejects Cost Savings Supported by Pentagon
AllGov - So what happens when the Department of Defense—which has been raking in half of trillion dollars a year—offers up multiple ways to cut its budget? Congress votes to put the money back.

Militarized Police Occupy Myrtle Beach Bike Week
Activist Post - For residents of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Memorial Day Bike Week, (aka “Black Bike Week”), has long been synonymous with vastly increased crime, violence, and destruction of property. Likewise, the event attracts a high number of police that set up shop to detain and harass attendees with roadblocks and other traditional hallmarks of a police state.

Company Designs Surveillance Jewelry That Alerts Police In Case of Assault
Adan Salazar - When someone thinks of GPS tracking bracelets, court mandated devices or criminals under house arrest typically come to mind, but one company is aiming to break that stigma and bring ubiquitous location monitoring into fashion.

The Retail Death Rattle Grows Louder
Zero Hedge - Retail store results for the 1st quarter of 2014 have been rolling in over the last week. It seems the hideous government reported retail sales results over the last six months are being confirmed by the dying bricks and mortar mega-chains. In case you missed the corporate mainstream media not reporting the facts and doing their usual positive spin, here are the absolutely dreadful headlines...

How Bots Manipulated The Price Of Bitcoin Through "Massive Fraudulent Trading Activity" At MtGox
Zero Hedge - For a decade, Barclays (among others) rigged the precious metals markets with bursts of sell orders to maintain the illusion that the ultimate indicator of status quo failure was not flashing red. It now appears that Bitcoin suffered the same (but buying burst) manipulation in the last year...

The Robots Are Coming, And They Are Replacing Warehouse Workers And Fast Food Employees
Economic Collapse - There are already more than 101 million working age Americans that are not employed and 20 percent of the families in the entire country do not have a single member that has a job. So what in the world are we going to do when robots start taking millions upon millions more of our jobs?

Bodies of 28 Veterans At LA County Morgue Will Finally Receive Proper Burial
(CBSLA.com) - The bodies of 28 veterans at the L.A. County Morgue were finally moved Friday for burial to the Riverside National Cemetery.
* Action Alert: Tell Congress that our military veterans deserve to be honored, not left to rot anonymously in a morgue!

CA Vet with Cancer Stuck on VA Waiting List for 8 Months with 7 More to Go
Breitbart.com - Curtis, a veteran from Sacramento, CA who says he has been diagnosed with kidney cancer, told radio host Tom Sullivan that he has been waiting eight months for his application for treatment to be processed. He said that he sent a claim into the Oakland VA office, and after waiting for six months, was told that because his kidney cancer was due to radiation exposure in the first Gulf War, he would have to submit an application to the Jackson, MS office.

The story of Sergeant Stubby, WWI's most decorated dog
stripes.com - Sergeant Stubby, a short brindle bull terrier mutt, was officially decorated a hero of World War I. Regarded as the greatest war dog in the nation's history, he earned one wound stripe and three service stripes.

Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk 5/26/14: The VA Scandal is Just the Tip of the Military Abuse Iceberg
Liberty Crier - President Obama held a press conference last week to express his outrage over reports that the Veterans Administration was routinely delaying treatment to veterans, with some veterans even dying while on alleged secret waiting lists.

Thousands of bikers in Washington for rally on POWS
(AFP) - Thousands of bikers roared through Washington for the annual Rolling Thunder rally Sunday, given added fervor this year amid anger over an ongoing scandal concerning medical care for veterans.

Dozens Of Hearings Later, Lawmakers Pressed On Where They've Been On VA Dysfunction
Huffington Post - Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has been under fire for weeks amid reports of misconduct at VA facilities around the country. But on Sunday, CNN's Candy Crowley pressed lawmakers to explain how they're not responsible, too, for failing to provide adequate oversight of VA hospitals given that they've held dozens of hearings on VA matters.

Extremists: “Military Veterans Who Have Fought In Foreign Wars And Are Disgruntled…”
Mac Slavo - While President Obama lays wreaths and Congressional representatives give lip service thanking our veterans for their sacrifice, the Department of Homeland Security operating under the directives of said Executive and Legislative branch membership warns law enforcement personnel to be on the lookout for domestic extremists who pose a threat to the United States of America.

The Crazy Genius Behind Solar Roadways
techcrunch.com - Here’s an idea crazy enough that it just might work: Pave the streets with solar-powered panels that have their own built-in heat and LED lights. That’s what Scott and Julie Brusawhope to accomplish with their ongoing Solar Roadways project, which they just funded through a hugely popular crowd funding campaign.

The story of Sergeant Stubby, WWI's most decorated dog
stripes.com - Sergeant Stubby, a short brindle bull terrier mutt, was officially decorated a hero of World War I. Regarded as the greatest war dog in the nation's history, he earned one wound stripe and three service stripes.

Convenia: A Dangerous Veterinary Drug: Please don't ever use this drug for your cats and dogs!
tudiabetes.org - Convenia is a dangerous [antibiotic] drug, it stays in the body actively for 12 days and then remains for 64 more days.... The following adverse events were reported voluntarily during post-approval use of the product in dogs and cats in foreign markets: death, tremors/ataxia, seizures, anaphylaxis, acute pulmonary edema, facial edema, injection site reactions (alopecia, scabs, necrosis, and erythema), hemolytic anemia, salivation, pruritus, lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea, and inappetance.

Homeopathic Mistakes to Avoid - True for Both Your Pet and You
Dr. Becker - Homeopathic treatments can work very effectively when done correctly. But watch out for this troubling trend which can have unintended consequences -- including suppressing symptoms without any real healing, and more.

Monday - May 26, 2014 - Today In History:  Memorial Day
1736 - The British and Chickasaw Indians defeated the French at the Battle of Ackia.
1835 - A resolution was passed in the U.S. Congress stating that Congress has no authority over state slavery laws.
1836 - The U.S. House of Representatives adopted what has been called the Gag Rule.
1864 - The Territory of Montana was organized.
1865 - Arrangements were made in New Orleans for the surrender of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi.
1868 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson was acquitted, by one vote, of all charges in his impeachment trial.
1896 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average appeared for the first time in the "Wall Street Journal."
1946 - A patent was filed in the United States for an H-bomb.
1948 - The U.S. Congress passed Public Law 557 which permanently established the Civil Air Patrol as the Auxiliary of the new U.S. Air Force.
1958 - Union Square, San Francisco became a state historical landmark.
1961 - A U.S. Air Force bomber flew across the Atlantic in a record time of just over three hours.
1969 - The Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth after a successful eight-day dress rehearsal for the first manned moon landing.
1972 - The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) was signed by the U.S. and USSR. The short-term agreement put a freeze on the testing and deployment of intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missiles for a 5-year period.
1978 - The first legal casino in the Eastern U.S. opened in Atlantic City, NJ.
1994 - U.S. President Clinton renewed trade privileges for China, and announced that his administration would no longer link China's trade status with its human rights record.
1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Ellis Island was mainly in New Jersey, not New York.
1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police officers in high-speed chases are liable for bystander injuries only if their "actions shock the conscience."
2004 - Terry Nichols was found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing.
2009 - California's Supreme Court upheld the Proposition 8 gay marriage ban but said the 18,000 same-sex weddings that had taken place before the prohibition passed were still valid.
2011 - Congress passed a four-year extension of post-Sept. 11 powers contained in the Patriot Act to search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of terrorists.

To All Who Paid the Ultimate Sacrifice...
 

China busts 23 'terror, religious extremism' groups: Xinhua
Reuters - Chinese police in the far western region of Xinjiang have taken down 23 "terror and religious extremism groups" and caught more than 200 suspects in May, state media said, days after the region's deadliest attack in years.

Billionaire Petro Poroshenko Wins Ukrainian Presidency
An exit poll on Sunday showed that billionaire candy-maker Petro Poroshenko won Ukraine's presidential election outright in the first round - a vote that authorities hoped would unify the deeply fractured nation.

Pope Francis Invites Israeli, Palestinian Presidents to Vatican
nbcnews.com - Pope Francis on Sunday invited the Israeli and Palestinian presidents to the Vatican, calling the stalemate in peace talks “unacceptable” as he visited the birthplace of Jesus.

Earthquake rattles Greece, Turkey
MSN News - An earthquake beneath the sea shook northern Greece and western Turkey Saturday, with 266 people reportedly injured in Turkey.

Thai Military Takes Total Control
Common Dreams - Despite crackdowns, reports of growing public opposition to military takeover. Military leaders in Thailand assumed all political power in the country on Saturday after dissolving the country's Senate, the last democratic institution left standing after the military seized power two days ago.

Exclusive: Whistleblower reveals new Veterans Affairs scandal
VA Supervisor: Older Veterans Should be “Shot in the Head” to Save Money - A Veterans Affairs whistleblower has exclusively revealed to Infowars that the facility at which he works has engaged in a of cover-up in response to the VA hospital scandal, while also relating the story of how one supervisor expressed his desire to see older veterans “taken outside and shot in the head.”

Alaska wildfire grows, spurs evacuations
MSN - A massive wildfire pushed by wind in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage continues to explode in size, leading to mandatory evacuations of 1,000 structures, officials said Sunday.

Obama makes surprise visit to Afghanistan
USA Today - President Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Sunday as his administration plans to end the nation's longest war at the end of this year, and faces intense criticism over the medical treatment of American veterans.

Irony of the Week: Bernie Sanders Says We Need To See What’s in the VA Bill Before Voting On It
ijreview.com - Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced a Senate bill this week that would make it easier to fire those responsible for the awful delays at the Veterans Administration. But Sen. Bernie Sanders (Socialist – VT) wants a hearing to further discuss the specifics of the bill.

What Does Ollie North Think of the Senate Debating the Washington Redskins Instead of VA Reform?
ijreview.com - The Senate blocked consideration of the bi-partisan VA Reform bill that was passed in the House of Representatives by 390-33. Instead, the Senate found time to discuss the name of the Washington Redskins. The Senate was even able to get 50 senators to sign a letter to the NFL asking them to force owner Dan Snyder to change the name of the team.

Gunman kills six in rampage in California college town
Reuters- A 22-year-old gunman killed six people before taking his own life in a rampage that began in his apartment and cascaded across a California college town, shortly after he posted a threatening video railing against women, police said on Saturday.

VA approves more private care for veterans
MSN News - More veterans are being allowed to obtain health care at private hospitals and clinics in an effort to improve their treatment following allegations of falsified records and delays in treatment. In a statement issued Saturday, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki also said VA facilities are enhancing capacity of their clinics so veterans can get care sooner.

A chilling message from the cartels: Billboards with hanging mannequins warning cops to choose 'silver over lead' appear in Texas
Daily News - Two frightening incidents of vandalism in El Paso near the Mexican border in Texas have been interpreted as warnings from drug cartels.

School Car Wash Fundraisers Banned in Virginia County
For years, car washes have been a fundraising staple for high school sports teams, marching bands and youth groups. Just get some kids together with buckets and soap, rent out a parking lot, put up a sign and hope it doesn’t rain. But in Arlington, Va., you also have to hope the government doesn’t catch you. Charity car washes and car wash fundraisers are now banned on school property there, after the Department of Environmental Services issued new rules for stormwater and water runoff.

Tips for Managing Seasonal Allergies
They’re saying that this is the worst year EVER for allergies.

Recalled Hummus and Dip Could Pose Listeria Risk
Nearly 15,000 pounds of hummus and dip products are being recalled by Lansal, Inc. due to possible contamination with listeria bacteria, which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young, frail and elderly people.

Potential new Alzheimer's treatment may come from an unexpected protein
Medical News Today - A protein implicated in producing aggregates harmful to the body may protect against Alzheimer's. Ongoing research into how this mechanism might work has led one team of researchers to the verge of creating a new drug to prevent or delay Alzheimer's symptoms.
 

Friday - May 23, 2014 - Today In History:
1788 - South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify U.S. Constitution.
1827 - The first nursery school in the U.S. was established in New York City.
1873 - Canada's North West Mounted Police force was established. The organization's name was changed to Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920.
1895 - The New York Public Library was created with an agreement that combined the city's existing Astor and Lenox libraries.
1900 - Civil War hero Sgt. William H. Carney became the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, 37 years after the Battle of Fort Wagner.
1901 - American forces captured Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo.
1908 - Part of the Great White Fleet arrived in Puget Sound, WA.
1915 - During World War I, Italy joined the Allies as they declared war on Austria-Hungary.
1934 - In Bienville Parish, LA, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed and killed by Texas Rangers.
1945 - In Luneburg Germany, Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi Gestapo, committed suicide while imprisoned by the Allied forces.
1985 - Thomas Patrick Cavanagh was sentenced to life in prison for trying to sell Stealth bomber secrets to the Soviet Union.
1992 - In Lisbon, Portugal , the U.S. and four former Soviet republics signed an agreement to implement the START missile reduction treaty that had been agreed to by the Soviet Union before it was dissolved.
1995 - The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was demolished.
1998 - British Protestants and Irish Catholics of Northern Ireland approved a peace accord.
1999 - In Kansas City, MO, Owen Hart (Blue Blazer) died when he fell 90 feet while being lowered into a WWF wrestling ring. He was 33 years old.
2003 - Congress sent President George W. Bush a $330 billion package of tax cuts - the third of his presidency.

Russia may build eight nuclear reactors for Iran
(Reuters) - Russia plans to sign a contract with Iran this year to build two more nuclear reactors at its Bushehr power plant as part of a broader deal for up to eight reactors in the Islamic state, a source close to the negotiations told Reuters on Thursday.

Koreas exchange fire near disputed sea boundary
(AP) - North and South Korean warships exchanged artillery fire Thursday in disputed waters off the western coast, South Korean military officials said, in the latest sign of rising animosity between the bitter rivals in recent weeks.

New civil war in Libya as Benghazi probe begins
WND - Dr. Jerome Corsi of WND lays out the truth about Libya. He so respected the opinions of the Tribes of Libya that he published their words showing their disdain for the Obama administration.

Military coup in Thailand: Constitution suspended, all TV & radio broadcasts halted
RT - Thailand’s army has taken over control of the country, suspending the constitution and imposing a curfew. TV and radio stations were also ordered to broadcast only army material. The coup follows months of political stalemate and turmoil.

16 Ukraine soldiers killed in deadly Donetsk region checkpoint attack
RT - 16 Ukrainian troops were killed and over 30 injured in an attack on a military checkpoint in Donetsk Region. The deadliest assault on the army since Kiev launched its military operation in the south-east of the country comes a few days ahead of election.

Prince Charles Compares Putin to Hitler
Kurt Nimmo - Prince Charles’ “well-intentioned” remark comparing Russian President Vladimir Putin to Hitler is ironic considering the well-established fact the British royal family was cozy with the real Hitler back in the day.

China Halts US Dollar Transactions With Afghan Banks
Zero Hedge - Chinese banks have halted dollar transactions with most Afghan commercial banks, the central bank governor said on Thursday, making it difficult for businesses to pay for imports with one of the Afghanistan's biggest trading partners.

Evidence builds that Malaysia Airlines MH370 was hijacked and diverted by militants
(NaturalNews) New evidence suggests that terrorists with ties to the al Qaeda organization may have had a hand in the strange, and still unexplained, disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

US tests cornerstone of European antimissile shield
RT - The US has successfully test-fired Aegis Ashore, the land-based version of the naval antiballistic missile system, which is to be deployed in Eastern Europe starting next year despite Moscow’s objections.

Globalist Institute Schedules Child’s Sex Change Despite Parent’s Objection
Prison Planet.com - Britain’s National Health Service and the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust clinic will allow a 16 year old girl to change her sex despite the vehement objection of the girl’s mother, according to a story posted by the Daily Mail earlier this week.

Russian Activists to Conduct Independent Studies Proving GMOs Could be Genetic Weapon
Natural Society - A draft bill is on the table in Russia that would criminalize GMO production and distribution. Now, anti-GMO activists there are looking to create a team of ‘long-overdue’ independent and international researchers that can finally prove unequivocally that GMOs are poison tools created by Monsanto and the corporate, biotech machine.

QUIZ:  U.S. In Africa - Test Your Knowledge

When BUSH Did What OBAMA'S doing, WERE YOU MAD?

Release The Drones: Obama Sends Predator Drone To #BringBackOurGirls
Breitbart - President Obama announced plans to send 80 members of the United States Military to join the search for the kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigerea by Boko Haram. A U.S. official tells the Wall Street Journal that a MQ-1 Predator drone will also be part of the team.

Senate confirms drone memo author to be federal judge
CBS News - By a near party-line 53-45 vote, senators confirmed David Barron to join the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia were the only lawmakers to cross party lines and vote against the confirmation.

Congress reaffirms indefinite detention of Americans under NDAA
RT - The US House of Representatives approved an annual defense spending bill early Thursday after rejecting a proposed amendment that would have prevented the United States government from indefinitely detaining American citizens.

State Dept. Won’t Say If Christian Toddler Jailed in Sudan is U.S. Citizen
(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. State Department on Monday declined to say if Martin Wani, a 20-month-old Christian boy imprisoned by the Islamist Sudanese government, is a U.S. citizen. “You don’t know whether that little boy in prison is a U.S. citizen?” CNSNews.com asked State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki at the department’s Monday press briefing.

Pennsylvania to allow police to search cars without a warrant
RT - The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled recently that police are allowed to search vehicles without a warrant. Meanwhile, the state General Assembly is advancing a bill to grant police authority to arrest those with “secret compartments” in their vehicles.

Sen. Ed Markey Wants $10 Million Per Year to Treat Guns Like Disease at CDC
Breitbart - On May 21 Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduced legislation designating $10 million a year to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) "to fund research on gun violence prevention and firearms safety."

US military failed to recapture seized nuclear weapon in test attack – internal review
RT - Guards at a US nuclear missile base failed last summer drill, which was meant to test their ability to withstand a hostile takeover, reports AP citing an internal review. US Air Force called it a “critical deficiency.”

The single most dangerous question to Obama about Benghazi
Hagmann & Hagmann Report - There is one single question about Benghazi that needs to be asked with absolute precision and answered with authenticated specificity.

Bilderberg Member Admits Secretive Confab More Powerful Than Davos
Paul Joseph Watson - A Bilderberg member has told respected German magazine Cicero that the secretive annual confab, set to take place next week in Copenhagen, is more powerful that Davos, which is dismissed as “pure PR talk.”

Sheriffs' Association: Release Of Convicted Immigrants 'Unacceptable'
Breitbart - The release of criminal immigrants awaiting the outcome of deportation proceedings is “unacceptable,” according to a sheriffs’ association involved in discussions with the Obama administration about immigration reform.

TSA to Purchase 24 Million Rounds of “Duty” Ammunition
Paul Joseph Watson - The TSA has issued a solicitation requesting 24 million rounds of .357 SIG “duty ammunition” over a five year period, prompting fresh questions as to whether the federal agency is planning to arm its workers.

TSA’s Mothballed Naked Body Scanners End Up Being Used In Prisons
Steve Watson - Oh The Irony. Over 150 radiation spewing body scanners, previously used by the TSA in the nation’s airports, have been redeployed into environments much more fitting of their use – prisons.

Teacher: White 'Privilege' Makes Common Core Necessary
Breitbart - David Pook, who claims to have “helped write the standards,” said during a recent Common Core debate at St. Anselm’s College in Manchester, New Hampshire, that Common Core was necessary because of “white privilege.”... Pook, who reportedly is a history teacher at the exclusive Derryfield School and who served as a pro-Common Core panelist at the debate, received jeers and laughter from the audience in response to his comments.

Woman Suspected of Non-Violent Crime Wakes Up to a Home Invasion, FBI-Style
The Daily Sheeple - Was it necessary for law enforcement to conduct a military-style raid on the home of a woman suspected of Medicare fraud?

Elderly Atlantic City Icon Could Lose His Family Home Of 45 Years To Benefit A Bankrupt Casino
Forbes - New Jersey is just one of a handful of states that allows authorizing eminent domain to benefit casinos. That is far removed from a genuine public use, like a highway or a school. CRDA wants to take Charlie’s family home (as well as 61 other units) for a “mixed-use development” to complement Revel, the latest casino built in Atlantic City.

Privacy Versus Security Is a FALSE Choice
Washington's Blog - Top security experts – including the highest-level government officials and the top university experts – say that mass surveillance increases terrorism and hurts security. They say that our government failed to stop the Boston bombing because they were too busy spying on millions of innocent Americans instead of focusing on actual bad guys.

YouTube: Skygate 911 - Full Film
You are the Jury as new and existing evidence is gathered with regard to the aviation related events of September 11, 2001. Analysis includes in depth study of the Departure Gate at Dulles, In-Flight navigation and alignment combined with further scrutiny of the data provided by government agencies which far exceed the capabilities of the alleged aircraft reported.

10 Outrageous Crimes The Banksters Hope You Forget
Activist Post - This report hopes to serve as a reminder that widespread corruption within the banking industry is nothing new; in fact, you could say it was built that way.

Euro Pacific Precious Metal Selects BitPay for Bitcoin payments
heraldonline.com - BitPay, world leader in business solutions for Bitcoin digital currency, announces a partnership with Euro Pacific Precious Metals. Based in New York City, Euro Pacific Precious Metals is one of the major international gold and silver dealers – and the world’s largest by volume to accept bitcoin to date.

Veteran health care woes become campaign issue
wral.com - The growing furor over veterans' health care moved to the political campaigns Thursday as congressional candidates from both parties called for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to be fired.

Thursday - May 22, 2014 - Today In History:
1761 - In Philadelphia, the first life insurance policy was issued in the U.S.
1819 - The steamship Savannah became the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
1872 - The Amnesty Act restored civil rights to Southerners.
1882 - The U.S. formally recognized Korea.
1900 - The Associated Press was incorporated as a non-profit news cooperative in New York.
1906 - The Wright brothers received a patent their flying machine.
1939 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed a military alliance between Germany and Italy known as the "Pact of Steel."
1947 - The Truman Doctrine was enacted by the U.S. Congress to appropriate military and economic aid Turkey and Greece.
1955 - Jack Benny did his last live network radio broadcast after a run of 23 years. He devoted his time fully to TV.
1967 - "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" premiered on PBS.
1969 - A lunar module of Apollo 10 flew within nine miles of the moon's surface. The event was a rehearsal for the first lunar landing.
1972 - U.S. President Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit Russia. He met with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
1990 - Microsoft released Windows 3.0.
1992 - Johnny Carson hosted NBC's "Tonight Show" for the last time. He had been host for 30 years.
1997 - Kelly Flinn, the U.S. Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepted a general discharge. She thereby avoided court-martial on charges of adultery, lying and disobeying an order.
1998 - New information came to light about the June 1996 bombing that killed 19 American airmen. The information indicated that Saudi citizens had been responsible and not Iranians as once believed.
1998 - A federal judge said that Secret Service agents could be compelled to testify before a grand jury in Monica Lewinsky investigation concerning U.S. President Clinton.
2002 - Chandra Levy's remains were found in Washington, DC's Rock Creek Park. She was last seen on April 30, 2001. California Congressman Gary Condit was questioned in the case due to his relationship with Levy.
2002 - In Birmingham, AL, a jury convicted former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry of murder in the 1963 church bombing that killed four girls.
2011 - A tornado devastated Joplin, Mo., claiming at least 159 lives and destroying about 8,000 homes and businesses.

U.S. Sends Military Personnel To Chad
Brandon Turbeville - As FOX News reports, President Barack Obama formally announced in a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner on Wednesday, May 21, 2014, the deployment of 80 U.S. military personnel to Chad under the pretense of helping locate the 300 Nigerian schoolgirls allegedly kidnapped by Boko Haram.

VIDEO: Kerry says ‘all options remain on table’ for Venezuela
Press TV - During his first visit to Mexico as the US secretary of state which was aimed at increasing educational ties between the two countries, Kerry spoke forcefully on Wednesday about the recent political unrest in Venezuela, saying the US is losing patience with the Venezuelan government.

Over 100 killed in Nigeria twin blasts
RT - Two car blasts at a busy market in the central city of Jos in Nigeria have killed at least 118 people, police say, with dozens more injured. The attacks come amid a bombing campaign by the Boko Haram Islamist militant group.

World Bank and aid donors accused of enabling land grabs
The Guardian - Aid donors and international institutions including the World Bank and World Economic Forum (WEF) have been accused of promoting an environment that fuels land grabs through policies and initiatives that pave the way for large-scale private investment.

Pentagon deploys another warship to Black Sea
RT - The United States military confirmed on Tuesday that a guided missile cruiser is en route to the Black Sea as worries persist about the ongoing crisis between Ukraine and Russia.

Russia to veto anti-Syria resolution at UNSC
Press TV - Russia says it will veto a draft resolution at the UN Security Council (UNSC) calling for referring the Syrian crisis to the International Criminal Court.

'Iran oil exports to China hit new high'
Press TV - Iran’s crude oil exports to its top customer, China, have more than doubled from a year ago to a record of nearly 800,000 barrels per day (bpd), a new report says.

Rio ups security ahead of World Cup
Press TV - Local authorities have said the security forces, including local and federal police officers and military troops, will start patrolling the streets of Rio on May 23.

Fukushima diverts groundwater from radioactive reactor into Pacific Ocean
RT - TEPCO, operators of the stricken Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant, has rerouted water flows around the plant straight into the ocean, to prevent it from becoming contaminated after seeping inside the plant.

U.S. Special Forces, Foreign Troops Practice Invading Tampa
Mikael Thalen - U.S. Special Forces and commandos from 16 foreign nations practiced “invading” Tampa, Fl. this week during an unprecedented international training exercise.

No Whites Allowed: Student Booted From Conference Because Of Skin Color: “Because I was white they would feel unsafe?”
Mac Slavo - Earlier this week First Lady Michelle Obama urged schoolchildren to monitor their parents for racially insensitive comments because Federal laws can only go so far in stopping racism. While we don’t have any racially insensitive incidents against African Americans to report at this time, maybe Mrs. Obama can assist us with the insensitive and racist actions taken by organizers of the annual White Privilege Conference held in Madison, Wisconsin.

California police caught on camera fatally shooting man
RT - Residents of a small central California city are asking for a response from officials after the local police department has been attributed with fatally shooting two suspects in a span of just 11 days this month.

Activists to Distribute 9/11 Reality Brochures to Counter Memorial Brochure Propaganda
Daily Paul - See the reality brochure here.

GMO Free Oregon begins gathering signatures for GMO labeling ballot initiative
(NaturalNews) An Oregon group opposed to genetically modified foods has begun gathering signatures for a statewide ballot measure in November that would require labeling of ingredients for all such products sold in the state.

YouTube: Rand Paul Filibusters Another Obama Appointee over Drone Memos - May 21, 2014
On Wednesday morning, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) began his filibuster of President Barack Obama's U.S. Court of Appeals nominee David Barron. The First Circuit nominee has drawn the libertarian-leaning senator's ire for the legal opinions Barron wrote in support of drone strikes against U.S. citizens.

Atlanta Craigslist Ad Seeks Crisis Actors for “Mass Casualty Exercise”
National Report - The U.S. government is known to use “professional actors” to depict victims in simulations of large scale attacks. According to an ABC News, “professional actors play the roles of victims” followed by media coverage to disseminate the supposed “disaster”.

NC Restaurant Posts “No Guns” Sign and Then Gets Robbed at Gunpoint
Blacklisted News - Even while Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun groups celebrate their “victory” in getting Chipotle to ban guns from their stores, a story out of Durham, NC reminds us why these so called “gun free zones” are actually doing more harm than good.

One-Third of Americans and Nearly Half the People around the World Fear Torture if Taken into Custody
AllGov - Of Americans polled, 32% indicated they were not confident that they would be safe from torture after being arrested in the U.S. Torture in this country isn’t as uncommon as some might think. The wide use of solitary confinement in the U.S. prison system amounts to torture, according to Amnesty International.

Chicago Cops Caught Brutalizing Woman, Says “You’ll Be Dead, Your Family Will Be Dead”
Ben Swann - A woman has filed suit against the city of Chicago as well as the Chicago Police Department after she was thrown to the ground and assaulted by officers during a raid of her salon. The disturbing incident was captured on the salon’s surveillance video.

The Next Obamacare Scandal: A Taxpayer-Funded Bailout Of Insurers
Zero Hedge - The LA Times reports that the “Obama administration has quietly adjusted key provisions of its signature healthcare law to potentially make billions of additional taxpayer dollars available to the insurance industry if companies providing coverage through the Affordable Care Act lose money.” In other words, yet another taxpayer funded bailout.

More than 100 protesters arrested at McDonald’s HQ demanding fair pay
RT - An estimated 2,000 marched outside the building in suburban Chicago demanding the right to form a union without retaliation and a wage increase to $15 an hour. McDonald’s employees, other food service employees, local church leaders, and union officials were on hand to join in the chants of “Hey McDonald’s You Can’t Hide, We Can See Your Greedy Side” and “No Big Macs, No Fries, Make our Wage Supersize.”

GM recalls more cars, sets new record
(Reuters) - General Motors Co is recalling more than 284,000 older Chevrolet cars in the United States and other markets, bringing U.S. recalls at the automaker this year to 29 and a record number of vehicles.

Who Needs The United States? Not Russia And China
Economic Collapse - Russia and China have just signed what is being called "the gas deal of the century", and the two countries are discussing moving away from the U.S. dollar and using their own currencies to trade with one another. This has huge implications for the future of the U.S. economy, but the mainstream media in the United States is being strangely quiet about all of this.

As Russia Dumps A Record Amount Of US Treasurys, Here Is What It Is Buying
Zero Hedge - So as Russia is selling a record amount of US paper, what is it buying? For the answer we go to Goldcore which tells us that "Russia Buys 900,000 Ounces Of Gold Worth $1.17 Billion In April."

George Soros sells all shares of Citigroup, Bank of America and JP Morgan
Blacklisted News - - George Soros dumped his stakes in banks and went for tech and gold miners in the first quarter, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday.

Bipartisan House Bill would Prohibit Congress from Flying First Class at Taxpayers’ Expense
AllGov - With the government mired in debt, and American soldiers stuck flying coach, some members of Congress have decided their colleagues shouldn’t be able to fly first class at taxpayer expense.

"Coercive", "Unethical" Banks Hold Mortgages Hostage Over Non-Disparagement 'Gag' Order
Zero Hedge - As Reuters reports, many of the 20 million homeowners in America are being held hostage on their mortgage modification process by an extra clause being added to the docs: they could not say or print or post anything negative about the provider, ever. These "gag orders" are becoming more frequent and Consumer law defenders are concerned, ""If your servicer screws up, you can't say anything about it... the homeowner has no defense."

VA Supervisor: Older Veterans Should be “Shot in the Head” to Save Money
Paul Joseph Watson - A Veterans Affairs whistleblower has exclusively revealed to Infowars that the facility at which he works has engaged in a of cover-up in response to the VA hospital scandal, while also relating the story of how one supervisor expressed his desire to see older veterans “taken outside and shot in the head.”

Wednesday - May 21, 2014 - Today In History:
1790 - Paris was divided into 48 zones.
1819 - Bicycles were first seen in the U.S. in New York City. They were originally known as "swift walkers."
1832 - In the U.S., the Democratic Party held its first national convention.
1863 - The siege of the Confederate Port Hudson, LA, began.
1881 - The American branch of the Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton.
1927 - Charles A. Lindberg completed the first solo nonstop airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean. The trip began May 20.
1929 - The first automatic electric stock quotation board was used by Sutro and Company of New York City.
1934 - Oskaloosa, IA, became the first city in the U.S. to fingerprint all of its citizens.
1956 - The U.S. exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean over Bikini Atoll.
1961 - Governor Patterson declared martial law in Montgomery, AL.
1968 - The nuclear-powered U.S. submarine Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, was last heard from. The remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
1970 - The National Guard was mobilized to quell disturbances at Ohio State University.
1980 - The movie "The Empire Strikes Back" was released.
1982 - The British landed in the Falkland Islands and fighting began.
1991 - In Madras, India, the former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a bouquet of flowers that contained a bomb.
1998 - An expelled student, Kipland Kinkel, in Springfield, OR, killed 2 people and wounded 25 others with a semi-automatic rifle. Police also discovered that the boy had killed his parents before the rampage.
1998 - In Miami, FL, five abortion clinics were hit by an butyric acid-attacker.

US parrots Kiev claims detained Russian journalists were ‘aiding terrorists’
RT - Washington has failed to condemn the detention of Russian journalists by Ukrainian troops, instead parroting Kiev’s accusations that they were abetting terrorists. The US appears to be biased in its attitude towards media professionals working in Ukraine.

VIDEO: Report reveals former US official devised plan to aid Syria militants
Press TV - A new report has revealed that a group led by a former high-ranking Pentagon official planned in 2013 to supply the foreign-backed militants operating inside Syria with weapons that were to be financed by a Saudi prince.

VIDEO: 70 killed in military airstrikes in Pakistan
Press TV - At least 70 people have been killed in the army airstrikes in Pakistan’s tribal region near the border with Afghanistan. Officials said that warplanes pounded several areas in North Waziristan, including Miranshah town as well as Mir Ali, Datta Khel and Ghulam Ali areas.

WikiLeaks ignores ‘deaths’ warning, threatens to name NSA-targeted country
RT - Despite warnings that doing so “could lead to increased violence” and potentially deaths, anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks says it plans to publish the name of a country targeted by a massive United States surveillance operation.

China Bans Use of Microsoft’s Windows 8 on Government Computers
(Reuters) - China has banned government use of Windows 8, Microsoft Corp's latest operating system, a blow to a U.S. technology company that has long struggled with sales in the country.... The official Xinhua news agency said the ban was to ensure computer security after Microsoft ended support for its Windows XP operating system, which was widely used in China.

Putin's Crimea Bonus: Vast Oil And Gas Fields
Zero Hedge - NY Times reports that when Russia acquired not just the Crimean landmass but also a maritime zone more than three times its size with the rights to underwater resources potentially worth trillions of dollars.

Russia, China sign multiple deals
Press TV - The two leaders signed 49 deals in the fields of energy, transport and infrastructure. They have yet to agree on a landmark multi-billion dollar natural gas deal.

Russia, China Plan to Expand Payments in National Currencies
(RIA Novosti) - Russia and China are planning to increase the volume of direct payments in mutual trade in their national currencies, according to a joint statement on a new stage of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation signed during high-level talks in Shanghai on Tuesday.

Russia and China to construct first rail bridge across Amur River
RT - Russia and China have agreed to build the first cross-border rail bridge over the Amur River by 2016, following President Putin’s visit to Shanghai. The bridge will cut transportation times and increase trade.

North Korea may be close to developing nuclear missile, some say
(Reuters) - North Korea, which this month threatened to carry out a fourth nuclear test, may be closer than previously thought to putting a nuclear warhead on a missile, some experts say, making a mockery of years of U.N. sanctions aimed at curbing such a program.

Global GMO Free Coalition Brings Together 4.5 Million People to Fight Biotech Industry Propaganda
Sustainable Pulse - The Global GMO Free Coalition has launched on Tuesday, bringing together GMO Free groups across 6 continents with a partner membership of over 4.5 Million people.

RT’s “Truthseeker” Rips The Lid Off False Flags
Russia Today (RT) is joining Press TV with hard-hitting coverage of false flags and 9/11. Daniel Bushell of the TruthSeeker program has led the way with a series of terrific shows devoted to this critically important topic.

North Carolina law would make discussing fracking chemicals illegal
RT - North Carolina legislators are considering a bill that would make it a crime to publicly disclose toxic chemicals that energy companies use in the hydraulic fracturing process, with offenders on the hook for fines or even jail time. Known as the Energy Modernization Act, the bill would make any unauthorized disclosure of fracking trade secrets – including the chemicals used – punishable with a Class I Felony, according to an Energywire report.

Obama seizes N.M. land for national monument in Bundy-like showdown
Washington Times - President Obama on Wednesday will declare a national monument in southern New Mexico, delivering a win for environmentalists but angering ranchers and local law enforcement, who say the land restrictions will end up creating a safe haven for drug cartels to operate within the U.S.

The Sequel To Rand Paul's Epic Filibuster Is Happening This Wednesday
Business Insider - According to his office, Paul will take to the Senate floor Wednesday morning to begin an old-fashioned, talking filibuster of Barron's nomination. Paul opposes Barron because of his concerns about legal opinions Barron wrote in support of the use of drones against U.S. citizens.

Stockman slams Justice Department scheme to stamp out businesses Obama disagrees with
Steve Stockman - Congressman Steve Stockman (R-TX 36) demanded the Obama administration suspend the Justice Department’s “Operation Choke Point,” in which government agents are pressuring banks to close the accounts of legal and law-abiding businesses engaged in commerce contrary to the political views of Barack Obama.

Feds used donations intended for poor for massages, luxuries for themselves
Washington Examiner - Federal employees and a contractor diverted more than $1 million of charitable contributions to spending on themselves for in-office massages, meals at every meeting and other luxuries and unnecessary expenses, a government audit found.

The Top 6 Craziest Things Cops Spend Forfeiture Money On
Blacklisted News - Last year, 22 police departments seized more than $1.3 million from 306 incidents. But fewer than half of these actually led to a conviction. In fact, under civil forfeiture, the government can take property from people never convicted of a crime, or even charged with one. Only a handful of states (including, most recently, Minnesota) actually require a criminal conviction to forfeit property.

Click It Or Ticket: Get Ready For Seat Belt Checkpoints! (Don’t Cops Have Better Things To Do?!)
Liberty Crier - “Click It or Ticket” begins today [May 19] – you know, that time of year when cops across America make use of checkpoints, pricey tickets, sting operations, tough-talking PSAs, night vision gear, and even sneaky undercover school buses to save you, not from bad guys, but from yourself.

VIDEO: Wisconsin Police Reassure Residents They Won’t Be Shot at From Military Truck
Paul Joseph Watson - Police in the Wisconsin town of Neenah have reassured residents that military trucks obtained from the U.S. Army now being deployed for domestic law enforcement duties won’t be used to fire on the locals.

School Tells Dad: Pay $10,000 To Access Your Child’s Personal Data
Off the Grid News - When the father of four attempted to convince the state board of education to share multiple years of the data mining of his children, he was informed of the hefty price tag — $10,194. The data is tied to Common Core.

When Propaganda Fails, Humanity Awakens...The Fall of Mainstream Media
the dollar vigilante blog - Mainstream media is definitely dying, and this is a VERY good thing. The root of the word government combine as "to control minds." The root of the word "govern" is control and the root of "ment" is mind. Without control over minds via the media, the government will lose all control. More young people now get their news from the internet than television. In mere years most everybody will get their news from the internet because nobody will trust the mainstream:

27 Huge Red Flags For The U.S. Economy
Economic Collapse - As we look toward the second half of 2014, there are economic red flags all over the place.

Did the Federal Reserve Launder $141 Billion Dollars Through Belgium to Hide Massive Increase In Quantitative Easing?
The Washington’s Blog - That’s what former Assistant Treasury Secretary and Wall Street Journal editor Paul Craig Roberts alleges: Is the Fed “tapering”? Did the Fed really cut its bond purchases during the three month period November 2013 through January 2014?

Deutsche Bank: “Perhaps The Fed And Other Central Banks Are Controlling The Market Too Much These Days”
Zero Hedge May 20, 2014 - Yesterday we showed what happens when the Fed takes central-planning a bit too far and leads to a market in which even Fed members say is too manipulated. Today, it’s Deutsche Bank’s turn to voice a lament on the topic of uber-manipulated, rigged markets.

The 69 Words You Can’t Use at GM
WSJ - As the WSJ reports today [May 16, 2014], GM will be fined $35 million — the maximum possible — and admit to breaking auto-safety laws, as part of a settlement with the U.S. government over its bungled recall of millions of cars with faulty ignition switches. In documents released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as part of the settlement, we get a colorful look into GM’s internal workings.

Petco Will Stop Selling Treats from China
Susan Thixton - ABC News is reporting that Petco "will stop selling dog and cat treats made in China by the end of this year".

Customer Says Heinz Sold Dangerous Dog Food
Courthouse News - Heinz knew that processed sheep lungs it sold to a pet food company were adulterated with rubber that could choke dogs, a shareholder of Natural Balance Pet Foods claims in court.

Tuesday - May 20, 2014 - Today In History:
1774 - Britain's Parliament passed the Coercive Acts to punish the American colonists for their increasingly anti-British behavior
1775 - North Carolina became the first colony to declare its independence. This is the date that is on the George state flag even though the date of this event has been questioned.
1784 - The Peace of Versailles ended a war between France, England, and Holland.
1861 - North Carolina became the eleventh state to secede from the Union.
1861 - During the American Civil War, the capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, AL, to Richmond, VA.
1874 - Levi Strauss began marketing blue jeans with copper rivets.
1875 - The International Bureau of Weights and Measures was established.
1902 - The U.S. military occupation of Cuba ended.
1902 - Cuba gained its independence from Spain.
1916 - Norman Rockwell’s first cover on "The Saturday Evening Post" appeared.
1926 - The U.S. Congress passed the Air Commerce Act. The act gave the Department of Commerce the right to license pilots and planes.
1927 - Charles Lindbergh took off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris aboard his airplane the "Spirit of St. Louis." The trip took 33 1/2 hours.
1932 - Amelia Earhart took off to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She became the first woman to achieve the feat.
1961 - A white mob attacked the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, AL. The event prompted the federal government to send U.S. marshals.
1969 - U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Apbia Mountain, which was referred to as Hamburger Hill.
1970 - 100,000 people marched in New York supporting U.S. policies in Vietnam.
1985 - The FBI arrested U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer John Walker. Walker had begun spying for the Soviet Union in 1968.
1985 - Radio Marti was launched.
1996 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Colorado measure banning laws that would protect homosexuals from discrimination.
1999 - At Heritage High School in Conyers, GA, a 15-year-old student shot and injured 6 students. He surrendered to an assistant principal at the school.

Russia's Pacific Fleet Warships Arrive in China for Drills
(RIA Novosti) - A Russian Pacific Fleet squadron, led by the guided-missile cruiser Varyag, has arrived in China to participate in a joint drill Naval Interaction-2014, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Monday.

US missile cruiser to enter Black Sea amid NATO drills in Eastern Europe – military source
RT - The US missile cruiser Vella Gulf is expected to arrive in the Black Sea on May 23, a military source told a Russian news agency. Another NATO vessel is already in the area, while the French Navy’s stealth frigate will reportedly be there by late May.

China summons US envoy over cyber-spying charges, vows retaliation
RT - China has dismissed all US accusations of industrial cyber-espionage against five of its military officials and published proof that Washington is actually stealing data from China. Beijing also summoned the US ambassador for an explanation.

Japan to establish strategic military outposts near disputed islands - report
RT - Tokyo has reportedly made plans to create new military outposts on remote islands close to disputed territories in an apparent move to bolster Japan’s defense capabilities amid its ongoing territorial rows with China.

White House can’t find critical letter on Iraq war from Blair to Bush
RT - The British inquiry into the 2003 Iraq War has hit a major stumbling block, as White House officials have been unable to find an “absolutely critical” letter sent by former Prime Minister Tony Blair to George W. Bush.

Switzerland rejects world's highest minimum wage
BBC - Under the plan, employers would have had to pay workers a minimum 22 Swiss francs (about $25; £15; 18 euros) an hour. Supporters said the move was necessary for people to live a decent life. But critics argued that it would raise production costs and increase unemployment.

Was flight MH370 accidentally SHOT DOWN? Staggering new claims that doomed plane was blown out of the sky by US and Thai fighter jets in training drill gone wrong
Daily Mail - The grieving family of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 have criticised the timing of a new book that claims the plane may have been accidentally shot down and the search for survivors covered up.

No More Fake Vaccination Campaigns, Says CIA
slate.com - The World Health Organization recently reported that after years of decline, polio is starting to make a comeback. It’s a worldwide problem, but one country in particular stands out. Of the 77 cases of polio detected this year, 61 were in Pakistan, where health workers have been frequently targeted for killing, torture, and intimidation by the Taliban.

Putin orders troops back to bases after drills in regions bordering Ukraine
RT - Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu to send troops back to bases from drills they were having in the southwestern regions of Rostov, Belgorod and Bryansk, on the border with Ukraine.

Thailand Army Declares Martial Law
Zero Hedge - With Russia massing troops on the border with Ukraine, China doing the same with Vietnam, the already volatile situation in Libya and Syria imploding with every passing day, the only geopolitical variable that was missing was a martial law and/or national coup.

China steps up speed of oil stockpiling as tensions mount in Asia, Crimea
StratRisks - China is stockpiling oil for its strategic petroleum reserve at a record pace, intervening on a scale large enough to send a powerful pulse through the world crude market.

NSA collecting content of all phone calls in the Bahamas, according to Snowden leak
RINF - The United States National Security Agency is reportedly collecting the contents of effectively every phone call dialed or received within the Bahamas, putting the conversations of countless residents and tourists into the hands of the NSA.

Former Prime Minister Of Malaysia Accuses CIA Of Covering Up MH-370 Disappearance
Zero Hedge - In the ongoing din over the confusion surrounding the recovery effort which has led nowhere, even the current Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak recently described the current rescue effort driven by satellite data of the suggested "location" of purported MH370 debris in the Indian Ocean as 'bizarre' and 'hard to believe'.

Chinese Army Bans All GMO Grains and Oil from Supply Stations
Sustainable Pulse - The Chinese army has ordered all military supply stations to only allow the purchase of non-GMO grain and food oil due to health safety concerns over GMOs.

Occupy activist Cecily McMillan sentenced to three months in prison
RT - A judge in New York City on Monday morning sentenced Occupy Wall Street activist Cecily McMillan to three months in jail and five years’ probation for assaulting a police officer during a 2012 protest.

Why Does Christian Persecution Get Worse In Every Country The U.S. “Liberates”?
The Daily Sheeple - When the U.S. military “liberates” a nation, shouldn’t it result in more liberty, freedom and peace for the people living there? Instead, we find just the opposite. In fact, in every single case since 9/11, when the U.S. military has “liberated” a nation it has resulted in the persecution of Christians in that country becoming much worse.

Secret Military Device ‘Hailstorm’ Used By Michigan Police, FOIA Request By Detroit News Denied
Pontiac Tribune - ‘HailStorm’ is a new device obtained by the Oakland County Sheriff with monies from a U.S. Homeland Security Grant and so far, there isn’t much information available on what exactly it can and cannot do. There were no questions asked when Oakland County commissioners unanimously approved the use of this cellphone tracking device previously used by the US military in Iraq.

Remington | moving production | New York to Alabama
legalinsurrection.com - After New York State passed the “SAFE Act” gun control law, there were fears that Remington Arms, a major employer in the economically depressed upstate area would leave. Slowly, that appears to be happening.

Radio Host Tony Stiles Arrested And Detained In Texas
Ben Swann - Stiles and two members of his tour team were arrested and detained for over seven hours on Thursday after he was stopped by DHS. Stiles was able to capture a portion of the incident on video.

Border Patrol Attempt To Seize Phone From Libertarian Filming Inland Checkpoint Stop
Steve Watson - Agent: “I don’t know if it’s a weapon”. Video that surfaced over the weekend shows border patrol agents close to El Paso, Texas attempting to seize a libertarian activist’s phone as he was videoing what he believed to be an unconstitutional checkpoint stop.

Teen faces potential life sentence in prison for illegal brownie recipe
Police State USA - A young man’s baked goods could potentially land him with a harsher punishment than a rapist or a murderer. The teen faces a a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of using unsanctioned ingredients in his cookies and brownies and selling them to eager customers.

Banking Deaths: Why JPMorgan Stands Out
Wall Street On Parade - No other major Wall Street bank comes close in terms of young worker deaths over the past six months. Of equal concern, since December, the early deaths related to JPMorgan have been coming at a rate of one or two a month – almost like clockwork.

Obama Administration Choking Off Bank Lending to Gun Dealers
The New American - Following the Obama administration’s “Operation Broken Trust," an operation that began just months into his first term, the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force was created initially to “root out and expose” investment scams. After bringing 343 criminal and 189 civil cases, the task force began looking for other targets.

Healthcare.Gov to Cost Taxpayers over $1 billion
atr.org - Healthcare.gov, the federal Obamacare website, will cost taxpayers over $1 billion, according to congressional testimony submitted by HHS nominee Sylvia Mathews Burwell.

YouTube: Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk 5/19/14: Tax Reform is Useless Without Spending Reform
Ron Paul - Recently, Republican leaders in Congress unveiled a "tax reform" plan that they claimed would provide the American people with a simpler, fairer, and more efficient tax system. While this plan does lower some tax rates and contains some other changes that may make next April a little less painful for Americans, there is little in it to excite supporters of liberty.

White House says Obama only learned of VA wait-list scandal on TV
Daily Mail - White House Press Secretary Jay Carney wound up with egg on his face Monday as he told reporters that President Barack Obama first learned from a TV news report that his Veterans Administration was denying medical care to vets with secret off-the-books-waiting lists.

More VA Whistleblowers Coming Forward, Campaign Says
U.S. News & World Report - POGO [The Project on Government Oversight] Director of Communications Joe Newman says the groups are looking for systematic problems and received 310 submissions as of Monday morning. The majority of reports are thus far from veterans and members of the public, and less than 10 percent are from VA employees, Newman says.

Cops Beat Veteran to Death after Traffic Stop for No Front License Plate
The Daily Sheeple - On Mother’s Day Tommy Yancy, father of two, was pulled over for not having a front license plate. What transpired beyond that point is not totally clear, but his injuries resulted in his death later that day. Yancy, 32, was a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan.

More Dogs Sick From Imported Pet Treats From China
EcoWatch - “Since FDA’s last update on October 22, 2013, we have received approximately 1,800 additional case reports,” said the FDA’s report. “As of May 1, 2014, we have received in total more than 4,800 complaints of illness in pets that ate chicken, duck or sweet potato jerky treats, nearly all of which are imported from China. The reports involve more than 5,600 dogs, 24 cats, three people and include more than 1,000 canine deaths.”

Made in the USA?
Susan Thixton - Did you know that 'Made in the USA' claim on a pet food or pet treat requires that food or treat to be made with 100% US ingredients? Apparently many pet food regulatory authorities didn't know this. Why else would so many pet food be making that Made in the USA statement on their labels when all ingredients are not of US origin?
 

Monday - May 19, 2014 - Today In History:
1608 - The Protestant states formed the Evangelical Union of Lutherans and Calvinists.
1643 - Delegates from four New England colonies met in Boston to form a confederation.
1864 - The Union and Confederate armies launched their last attacks against each other at Spotsylvania in Virginia.
1921 - The U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants.
1926 - Thomas Edison spoke on the radio for the first time.
1943 - Winston Churchill told the U.S. Congress that his country was pledging their full support in the war against Japan.
1958 - Canada and the U.S. formally established the North American Air Defense Command.
1964 - The U.S. State Department reported that diplomats had found about 40 microphones planted in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
1967 - The Soviet Union ratified a treaty with the United States and Britain that banned nuclear weapons from outer space.
1967 - U.S. planes bombed Hanoi for the first time.
1992 - The 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect. The amendment prohibits Congress from giving itself midterm pay raises.
2000 - The bones of the most complete and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton went on display in Chicago.
2003 - It was announced that Worldcom Inc. would pay investors $500 million to settle civil fraud charges over its $11 billion accounting scandal.
2003 - Hundreds of Albert Einstein's scientific papers, personal letters and humanist essays were make available on the Internet. Einstein had given the papers to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in his will.

Ukraine Crisis Goes Nuclear
Tony Cartalucci - Reports allege that some 20 members from the armed Neo-Nazi front, Right Sector, attempted to storm the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, in Energodar city, Zaporizhia province.

John Kerry's friend, Devon Archer new member on the board of Ukrainian natural gas producer Burisma
Blacklisted News - Vice President Joe Biden‘s son and a close friend of Secretary of State John Kerry’s stepson have joined the board of a Ukrainian gas producer controlled by a former top security and energy official for deposed President Viktor Yanukovych.

PLA Troops Descend on China-Vietnam Border
Paul Joseph Watson - Beijing may be considering a military response to anti-China protests that have erupted in Vietnam over the last two weeks, with reports of an “endless stream” of PLA troops, tanks, missile launchers and other heavy artillery heading to Pingxiang city, where the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979 began.

Russia’s “Holy Grail” Gas Deal With China Now “Only One Digit Away”
Zero Hedge - We have previously profiled the “holy grail” gas deal between Russia and China on several occasions, and noted last week how it is expected to be signed this week - pending some final price negotiations.

Russia Wants to Impose Criminal Liability for GMO-Related Activities
Natural Society - A Russian newspaper, Izvestia, writes that criminal liability will be imposed on any act that involves producing, selling, or transporting genetically modified organisms, if Russian lawmakers get their way.

Epic Floods Threaten Balkans
Common Dreams - Tens of thousands are fleeing their homes in the Balkans amidst epic floods triggered by unprecedented rainfall that have already claimed the lives of dozens. Three months worth of rain fell on the region in just three days… The flooding in Bosnia has unleashed another danger: the thousands of landmines that litter the country from the 1992–1995 war.

Russia-China ties at highest level in history – Putin
RT - Russia-China cooperation has reached its highest level ever, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in an interview with Chinese media on the eve of his visit to Shanghai, where a record package of documents is expected to be signed by the two nations.

Over 3000 Chinese evacuated as Vietnam’s anti-China riots escalate; Taiwan also on “high alert”
Zero Hedge - China began evacuating hundreds of its nationals from Vietnam (via at least 2 planes and 5 ships) as the anti-China protests have become increasingly deadly following Beijing’s attempt to deploy an oil drill in Vietnamese dispuited waters.

Selling War: The World's Biggest Exporters Of Weapons
Zero Hedge - One glance at the following chart prepared by the Economist, showcasing the world's largest importers of weapons, and more importantly, exporters, and one could almost imagine why both the US and Russia have an interest in a "contained" (or not so much) regional war...

US to spend $317 million on British intel hub upgrade says report
RT - Washington is to upgrade RAF Croughton, one of its UK bases allegedly involved in mass surveillance and drone strikes, to make it the largest intel hub outside mainland US and a center for its operations in Africa, The Independent on Sunday reports.

Record high radiation in seawater off Fukushima plant
The Japan Times - Radiation has spiked to all-time highs at five monitoring points in waters adjacent to the crippled Fukushima No. 1 power station, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday.

Source of Fukushima’s Nagging Radioactive Leak Finally Discovered – TEPCO
RT - The source of the radioactive leak at the earthquake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was finally identified by the facility’s operator TEPCO to be in the primary containment vessel of reactor 3, authorities reported.

Federal court: police can warrantlessly break down door and seize guns without charges
Police State USA - The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that it is not a violation of constitutional rights if police break down a citizen’s door, search the home, and confiscate firearms, so long that they believe it is in the citizen’s best interest.

City passes ordinance to protect Monsanto world headquarters from protesters
Activist Post - Apparently Monsanto protesters have traditionally gathered on a large median on Olive Boulevard outside the Monsanto world headquarters complex at 800 N. Lindbergh Blvd in St. Louis to hold up signs and give out informational pamphlets. Well, now the Creve Coeur City Council has unanimously voted 8-0 to try and stop that from happening.

Cheney Declares Hillary Clinton Responsible for Benghazi Attack
Kurt Nimmo - “She was secretary of state at the time that it happened,” Cheney told Fox’s Chris Wallace. “She was one of the first in Washington to know about it. I think she clearly bears responsibility for whatever the State Department did or didn’t do with respect to that crisis.”

Agriculture Department puts in request to buy body armor
Washington Times - The U.S. Department of Agriculture has put in an acquisition request to buy body armor — specifically, “ballistic vests, compliant with NIJ 0101.06 for Level IIIA Ballistic Resistance of body armor,” the solicitation stated.

Obamacare: Cash for Crony Capitalism
Kurt Nimmo - The feds have spent near $5 billion to get state exchanges for Obamacare operational. A key tenet of crony capitalism is if project fails or does not work, the government will continue to shovel money into it.

Homeless tent city in Camden, N.J. get bulldozed
CNN News - One of the most recent evictions took place in Camden, N.J., this week, when the state, county and city joined forces to shut down multiple tent cities and kick out the residents. While the county worked with the occupants to find them somewhere to go, Camden's shelters were already full and many people ended up on the streets.

Cities All Over America Are Becoming Extremely Cruel To The Homeless
Economic Collapse - We are treating some of the most vulnerable members of our society like human garbage, and it is a national disgrace.

Republican 'establishment' sinks cash into ads pushing back at Tea Party
Raw Story - he push is part of a wider drive by so-called establishment Republicans to back mainstream candidates and prevent Tea Party figures like Smith from winning primaries ahead of the November 4 midterm elections.

FCC Hears the Public Outcry for Net Neutrality, Continues to Consider Pay-to-Play Rules
Electronic Frontier Foundation - There’s good news: the nationwide outcry against the Federal Communications Commission’s troublesome proposal for new Open Internet rules is clearly having an impact. . . The bad news: the FCC still is considering a set of rules that will allow Internet providers to discriminate how we access websites with only vague and uncertain limits, endangering network neutrality and threatening the vibrant growth of the Internet.

Matter will be created from light within a year, claim scientists
The Guardian - Researchers have worked out how to make matter from pure light and are drawing up plans to demonstrate the feat within the next 12 months.

FDIC closes bank in Illinois bringing total bank closures for 2014 to 7
The Daily Sheeple - Entering 2014, there are nearly 1000 banks and other financial organizations on the troubled list due to mortgages, derivatives, and bad investments.

The Meat Crisis Is Here: Price Of Shrimp Up 61% – 7 Million Pigs Dead – Beef At All-Time High
Economic Collapse - As the price of meat continues to skyrocket, will it soon be considered a "luxury item" for most American families? This week we learned that the price of meat in the United States rose at the fastest pace in more than 10 years last month.

Where the World's Unsold Cars Go To Die (Photos)
Zero Hedge - In the past several years, one of the topics covered in detail on these pages has been the surge in such gimmicks designed to disguise lack of demand and end customer sales, used extensively by US automotive manufacturers, better known as "channel stuffing", of which General Motors is particularly guilty and whose inventory at dealer lots just hit a new record high.

Police Now “Armed For War” Against Returning Veterans
Paul Joseph Watson - In an interview with Fox 59, a Morgan County, Indiana Police Sergeant admits that the increasing militarization of domestic police departments is partly to deal with returning veterans who are now seen as a homegrown terror threat.

Friday - May 16, 2014 - Today In History:
1866 - The U.S. Congress authorized the first 5-cent piece to be minted.
1868 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson was acquitted during the Senate impeachment, by one vote.
1888 - The capitol of Texas was dedicated in Austin.
1960 - A Big Four summit in Paris collapsed due to the American U-2 spy plane incident.
1963 - After 22 Earth orbits Gordon Cooper returned to Earth, ending Project Mercury.
1965 - Spaghetti-O's were sold for the first time.
1969 - Venus 5, a Russian spacecraft, landed on the planet Venus.
1971 - U.S. postage for a one-ounce first class stamp was increased from 6 to 8 cents.
1987 - The Bobro 400 set sail from New York Harbor with 3,200 tons of garbage. The barge traveled 6,000 miles in search of a place to dump its load. It returned to New York Harbor after 8 weeks with the same load.
1988 - A report released by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop declared that nicotine was addictive in similar was as heroin and cocaine.
1988 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police do not have to have a search warrant to search discarded garbage.
1991 - Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.
1992 - The Endeavour space shuttle landed safely after its maiden voyage.
2000 - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was nominated to run for U.S. Senator in New York. She was the first U.S. first lady to run for public office.
2005 - Sony Corp. unveiled three styles of its new PlayStation 3 video game machine.

Up to 21 dead, doctor says, as anti-China riots spread in Vietnam
Blacklisted News - Up to 21 people were killed in Vietnam, a doctor said on Thursday, and a huge foreign steel project was set ablaze as anti-China
The doctor at a hospital in central Ha Tinh province said five Vietnamese workers and 16 other people described as Chinese were killed on Wednesday night in rioting, one of the worst breakdowns in Sino-Vietnamese relations since the neighbors fought a brief border war in 1979.

Rocket Carrying Russia's Most Advanced Communications Satellite Crashes During Take Off
Zero Hedge - Two days ago Russia retaliated against US sanctions by banning the US from using the International Space Station after 2020, and by barring the use of Russian rockets as launch vehicles for US military satellites. Then, moments ago, a Russian Proton rocket, with advanced satellites on board, crashed during take off, during the activation of the third rocket stage some 9 minutes into the launch.

Libya threat: US sends Marines to Italy
PressTV - US officials announced the deployment of approximately 200 Marines from Spain to southern Italy to join the “crisis response” force ready to defend the embassy in Tripoli, Libya.

New global-warming skeptic fears for 'safety'
World Net Daily - Lennart Bengtsson, a leading climate scientist who has become skeptical of the impact of mankind on climate claims he fears for his safety amid a “witch hunt” by American global warming activists.

US private troops fighting alongside Ukrainian army against pro-Russians
PressTV - Hundreds of American privates soldiers from a security company with a record of alleged atrocities in Iraq are fighting along with the Ukrainian army against the pro-Russian activists in southeast of Ukraine, according to media reports.

Up to 21 dead, doctor says, as anti-China riots spread in Vietnam
Reuters - Up to 21 people were killed in Vietnam, a doctor said on Thursday, and a huge foreign steel project was set ablaze as anti-China riots spread to the centre of the country a day after arson and looting in the south. The doctor at a hospital in central Ha Tinh province said five Vietnamese workers and 16 other people described as Chinese were killed on Wednesday night in rioting, one of the worst breakdowns in Sino-Vietnamese relations since the neighbors fought a brief border war in 1979.

Putin: Ukraine must pre-pay for gas from June 1
ABC News - Ukraine must pay in advance for Russian gas supplies starting next month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, raising pressure on the struggling neighbor as Moscow voiced dismay over what it says is Ukraine's reluctance to implement an international peace plan. Putin said in a letter to European leaders that Ukraine's debt for Russian gas supplies has reached $3.5 billion, and because of its refusal to pay Moscow, it will have to switch to pre-paid gas deliveries starting from June 1.

Majority say Obama admin knowingly lied about Benghazi terrorist attacks
Red State - A new Fox News poll finds that 51 percent think that Obama administration “knowingly lied” about the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya “to help the President Obama during his re-election campaign” against Mitt Romney. The poll also found that 54 percent think Obama’s administration “tried to deceive” the American people about the events surrounding the Benghazi terrorist attacks.

VA Scandal Spreads as Watchdog Opens New Probes
The Daily Beast - Grilled by the same bipartisan panel earlier in the day, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said he had not seen evidence of systematic book cooking in the VA, only “isolated incidents.” The incidents reported so far may be isolated from the departmental headquarters in D.C. but they have spread across facilities and state lines. There is a clear pattern to the claims of wrongdoing, a line that can be drawn from San Antonio through Phoenix to Cheyenne. In each location VA officials have reportedly manipulated records to make it seem like veterans were receiving care when they were actually still waiting, buried under paperwork. Shinseki said he was “mad as hell” about the allegations of abuses, but in further testimony he deflected direct questions with vague answers.

USDA TO PURCHASE SUBMACHINE GUNS
DCClothesLine - The United States Department of Agriculture is set to purchase an unknown quantity of submachine guns, leading to questions about where the weapons will be heading and for what purpose they will be used.

US explores legal rights for Guantanamo detainees
Associated Press - The Obama administration says there are legal safeguards in place in the event suspected terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay are relocated to the United States, and that detainees would be barred from receiving asylum and would have no right to remain in the country permanently.

Watch Trey Gowdy’s Epic Speech on the Floor of Congress That May Be a Defining Moment for America
IJ Review - We’ve finally gotten to the point where Congress had to pass a law to make sure that the laws they pass are enforced. In a speech that Representative Trey Gowdy really shouldn’t have had to make, he explains angrily to the Congress what its job is, and to Obama what his job is. Members were heard to applaud as he reached the crescendo.

Somali pirate gets 41 1/2 years for attack on Navy ship
Stars and Stripes - NORFOLK, Virginia — A federal judge Wednesday sentenced a Somali pirate to 41-1/2 years in prison after rejecting a prosecutor's call for a mandatory life term. Mohamed Ali Said, 30, was convicted along with five other Somali men of piracy and related charges in the April 2010 attack on the dock landing ship Ashland. Each faced a mandatory life prison term for the piracy convictions.

Missouri governor critical of 72-hour abortion wait law
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said on Thursday he has "profound concerns" about a bill state lawmakers approved this week requiring women to wait 72 hours for an abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. Nixon, a Democrat, did not say whether he would veto the bill, which the Missouri House of Representatives approved on Wednesday, advancing it to the governor.

Report: Food Prices Skyrocket: “We’re Going to Have a Major Problem Coming Into the Fall”
DCClothesLine - While government statisticians claim robust growth, recent data points suggest otherwise. Consumers are quickly running out of money, home sales have collapsed and hit their biggest drop in three years, there are more Americans out of the labor force than ever before, and one third of adults under the age of 35 are living with their parents because they can no longer afford to pay their own mortgage.

Meat Prices Surge Most In 11 Years
Zero Hedge - Hardly surprising given the surge in beef and pork that we have been noting, but according to the latest inflation data from the BLS, meat prices spike by almost 3% in April - the most since November 2003 (this is also the 2nd biggest price spike in 34 years!) As we noted previously, this soaring food price inflation is not about to stop anytime soon...

Visa, MasterCard to pay $3bn to stay in Russia says Morgan Stanley
RT - Under Russia's new legislation, Visa and MasterCard will have to pay $3 billion in ‘security fees’ to continue operating in Russia, more than five times higher than the companies combined revenues, a new Morgan Stanley report says. Under the new plan, Visa will be required to pay Russia’s Central bank $1.9 billion, and MasterCard will have to fork out $1 billion, according to an estimate by Morgan Stanley, Kommersant reported on Thursday.

The Next Four Months Will Decide the Future of the Internet
OpedNews - America was always going to have a great debate about net neutrality.
Cable and telecommunications companies stand to reap billions if the Internet's guarantee of equal protection for all communications is scrapped. Without net neutrality protections, they would be freed to create a pay-to-play Internet where they could charge corporations and special-interest groups to provide high-speed service, while consigning websites without benefactors to a digital dirt road.

Amid protests, FCC proposes new 'net neutrality' rules
Reuters - U.S. telecommunications regulators on Thursday formally proposed new "net neutrality" rules that may let Internet service providers charge content companies for faster and more reliable delivery of their traffic to users. "Simply put, when a consumer buys a specified bandwidth, it is commercially unreasonable and thus a violation of this proposal to deny them the full connectivity and the full benefits that connection enables." More than 100 activists protested at the FCC, with signs reading "Liberate the Internet" and "Keep the Internet Free." four onlookers were escorted out of the meeting room for shouting protests.

US college students who found $41,000 in cash hidden in an old thrift-store couch track down previous owner to RETURN the money
New York - When a trio of New York college students bought a smelly secondhand couch from a charity store for $20 they had no clue about its real value.
But not long after roommates Reese Werkhoven, Cally Guasti and Lara Russo got it back to their New Paltz home and nestled in, they discovered envelopes of cash - $41,000 worth - were stashed in every conceivable crevice of the pre-loved find. However, the students' excitement turned to moral dilemma when they found that one of the envelopes had a woman's name on it. Read More..
 

Thursday - May 15, 2014 - Today In History:
1702 - The War of Spanish Succession began.
1795 - Napoleon entered the Lombardian capital of Milan.
1862 - The U.S. Congress created the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
1911 - The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil Company, ruling it was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
1916 - U.S. Marines landed in Santo Domingo to quell civil disorder.
1918 - Regular airmail service between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, began under the direction of the Post Office Department, which later became the U.S. Postal Service.
1940 - Nylon stockings went on sale for the first time in the U.S.
1942 - Gasoline rationing began in the U.S. The limit was 3 gallons a week for nonessential vehicles.
1957 - Britain dropped its first hydrogen bomb on Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean.
1958 - Sputnik III, the first space laboratory, was launched in the Soviet Union.
1970 - U.S. President Nixon appointed America's first two female generals.
1972 - Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace was shot by Arthur Bremer in Laurel, MD while campaigning for the U.S. presidency. Wallace was paralyzed by the shot.
1975 - The merchant ship U.S. Mayaguez was recaptured from Cambodia's Khmer Rouge.
1988 - The Soviet Union began their withdrawal of its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan. Soviet forces had been there for more than eight years.
2003 - Texas Democrats returned home after a self-imposed four-day exile in Oklahoma in a dispute over a redistricting plan.
2006 - A defiant Saddam Hussein refused to enter a plea at his trial in Iraq for crimes against humanity, insisting he was still the country's president.
2006 - The United States removed Libya from its list of terrorist states.
2008 - California's Supreme Court declared gay couples in the state could marry – a victory for the gay rights movement that was overturned by the passage of Proposition 8 the following November.

Extremists attack town of abducted schoolgirls
MSN News - BAUCHI, Nigeria (AP) — Islamic militants again attacked the remote Nigerian town from which nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped, Nigeria's military said Wednesday, resulting in a firefight that killed 12 soldiers and led angry troops to fire on a commanding officer.

No prisoner swap with Boko Haram: Nigerian president
PressTV - Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has rejected to free prisoners of the Boko Haram Takfiri group in exchange for the release of over 200 kidnapped schoolgirls.

Thai protesters force PM to flee meeting after three killed in Bangkok
Reuters - Protesters seeking to oust Thailand's government broke into the grounds of an air force compound on Thursday where the acting prime minister was meeting the Election Commission to fix a date for new polls, forcing him to flee. The disruption of acting Prime Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongphaisan's efforts to organize an election came hours after gunmen attacked anti-government protesters, killing three.

Suspected Drone Strike Kills Up To 10 Near Pakistan-Afghan Border
Radio Free Europpe - A U.S. drone strike near the Pakistan-Afghan border has killed up to 10 suspected militants and wounded 14 others. Nasir Khan, the assistant political agent of the Bara subdistrict in Pakistan's Khyber tribal district, said on May 14 that the strike targeted militants in Afghanistan's Nazian district, which has become a sanctuary for fighters from the Pakistani Taliban and the Lashkar-e Islam group. Political administration officials in the Khyber tribal district told an RFE/RL correspondent that the suspected drones fired three missiles.

Christopher Columbus Ship The Santa Maria May Have Been Found
NPR - It's been missing for more than 500 years. But now there are reports that the Santa Maria, the largest ship among the trio that made Christopher Columbus' first expedition to North America, may be found. Undersea explorer Barry Clifford says he thinks he has found the ship in waters off of Haiti's coast.

At least 30 homes have burned in Carlsbad, California, state fire official says - Multiple fires burning in San Diego County
MSN News - A state fire official says an aggressive wildfire has burned at least 30 homes in the Southern California city of Carlsbad. The blaze was one of several wildfires that firefighters in San Diego County were battling amid hot, dry and windy conditions.
* Related Article: Thousands flee Southern California wildfires, university evacuated

Veterans Affairs Secretary to Face Senate Questions on Delayed Care
New York Times - Mr. Shinseki will face sharp questions today (May 15, 2014) about the alleged secret lists — and whether any veterans might have died awaiting care — in a hearing before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. According to prepared testimony, Mr. Shinseki, a retired four-star general and Army chief of staff, will emphasize that he is “personally angered and saddened by any adverse consequence that a veteran might experience while in, or as a result of, our care.”

Memos Show VA Staffers Have Been 'Gaming System' for Six Years
NBC News - nternal memos show the VA has been playing whack a mole for at least six years with employees who use dozens of different scheduling tricks to hide substantial delays in health care for America’s veterans. And whenever the VA tries to stop its staffers from “gaming the system,” the staffers come up with new techniques. Whistleblowers around the country are now accusing the VA of hiding a backlog in patient care with bookkeeping tricks, and a former doctor at a VA facility in Arizona says the delays may have contributed to the deaths of 40 patients.

9/11 Museum Poised to Open at World Trade Center Site
NBC NEWS - The 9/11 Museum, which is poised to open in New York City nearly 13 years after the terror attacks that destroyed the twin towers and killed about 3,000 people, including 2,753 in New York. After years of delays, the museum will be dedicated on Thursday, and will open to the public on May 21st.

Release of 36,000 criminal illegals impeachable offense?
World Net Daily - The reported release last year of more than 36,000 criminal illegal aliens is part of a larger annual trend of thousands of such releases since 2009, according to the authors of a book documenting the case for impeaching President Obama.
Read more...

VIDEO: The Insanity of Common Core Math Revealed in Under Two Minutes
This is an excellent video that demonstrates the absurd nature of Common Core Math in less than two minutes. (Watch Video Below) Caleb Bonham, from Campus Reform, goes to George Mason University for a type of ‘Man on the Street’ segment. With whiteboard in hand, he approaches various students and faculty to discuss how to solve a Math problem, 32 – 12. He first solves it the traditional way, then does so the Common Core way.

Sen. Ted Cruz: Ten Questions That Remain Unanswered About Benghazi
TPNN News - U.S. Senator Ted Cruz called for unanimous consent on a Senate resolution (WATCH VIDEO BELOW) that would create a Joint Select Committee to investigate the Benghazi terrorist attacks. However, Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez blocked the request, robotically repeating the Democrat talking point that the investigation was a “political trick.”

Analyst: Keep 'close eye' on NSA chief
PressTV - The American public needs to “keep a very close eye” on the new director of the US National Security Agency to ensure the spy agency is adhering to the new rules, a political analyst tells Press TV.

ObamaCare Processors Getting Paid To Do Nothing
Ben Swann - Wentzville, MO - An ObamaCare processor operated by Serco with a 1.2 billion dollar contract is paying its employees in a Wentzville, Missouri process center to do nothing, according to a Serco employee and whistleblower. The whistleblower claims that despite not having enough work for their current employees Serco is still hiring. “They want to hire more people even though we still don’t have work to keep the people we have busy.” He claims that hundreds of employees sit staring into computer screens with little or nothing to do.

Kentucky Sues DEA To Free Its Impounded Hemp Seeds
Huffington Post - Kentucky on Wednesday sued the federal government for return of agricultural hemp seeds seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration after the agency told state officials they would have to apply for a permit to get them back. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Louisville, names the DEA, the Department of Justice, Customs and Border Protection and Attorney General Eric Holder, according to the complaint, obtained by HuffPost.

Taiwan companies suffering big losses in Vietnam as China tensions grow
Reuters - Taiwan companies doing business in Vietnam have lost billions of dollars as tensions mount tensions between Vietnam and China, an industry association said on Wednesday. Tensions rose in the resource-rich South China Sea last week after China positioned a giant oil rig in an area also claimed by Vietnam. Each country accused the other of ramming its ships near the disputed Paracel Islands.

Bravo® Issues Nationwide Recall of Pet Food for Dogs and Cats
FDA.gov - May 14, 2014 - Manchester, CT – Bravo is recalling select lots and product(s) of Bravo Pet Food because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The recalled product was distributed nationwide to distributors, retail stores, internet retailers and directly to consumers. The product can be identified by the batch ID code (best used by date) printed on the side of the plastic tube or on a label on the box.
 

Wednesday - May 14, 2014 - Today In History:
1787 - Delegates began gathering in Philadelphia for a convention to draw up the U.S. Constitution.
1796 - The first smallpox vaccination was given by Edward Jenner.
1897 - "The Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Phillip Sousa was performed for the first time. It was at a ceremony where a statue of George Washington was unveiled.
1904 - In St. Louis, the Olympic games were held. It was the first time for the games to be played in the U.S.
1913 - The Rockefeller Foundation was created by John D. Rockefeller with a gift of $100,000,000.
1940 - The Netherlands surrendered to Nazi Germany.
1942 - The Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) was established by an act of the U.S. Congress.
1955 - The Warsaw Pact, a Easter European mutual-defense treaty, was signed in Poland by eight communist bloc countries including the Soviet Union.
1961 - A bus carrying Freedom Riders was bombed and burned in Alabama.
1973 - Skylab One was launched into orbit around Earth as the first U.S. manned space station.
1975 - U.S. forces raided the Cambodian island of Koh Tang and recaptured the American merchant ship Mayaguez. All 40 crew members were released safely by Cambodia. About 40 U.S. servicemen were killed in the military operation.
1980 - U.S. President Carter inaugurated the Department of Health and Human Services.
1985 - The first McDonald's restaurant became the first fast-food business museum. It is located in Des Plaines, Illinois.
1992 - Former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev addressed members of the U.S. Congress, appealing to them to pass a bill to aid the people of the former Soviet Union.
1999 - North Korea returned the remains of six U.S. soldiers that had been killed during the Korean War.

UN-marked strike helicopter ‘used by Kiev against militia’ sparks scandal
RT - The UN has voiced concerns over the apparent use of UN-marked helicopters by Kiev troops in their military operation against Donetsk regional militia. A video of a white-painted Mil Mi-24 strike helicopter with UN logo has emerged.

UN, Kiev in Talks Over UN-Marked Choppers Used in Crackdown
MOSCOW, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – The United Nations is in talks with authorities in Kiev who apparently have been using UN-marked helicopters in a military operation against Ukraine’s restive southeastern territories, according to the RT news channel.

Yemen army clash with al-Qaida kills 7 troops
Daily Mail UK - The Yemeni army repelled a dawn attack by al-Qaida fighters seeking to recapture a restive southern town in intense clashes that killed seven soldiers and 16 militants on Wednesday, security officials said.The fighting raged for nearly three hours on the fringes of the town of Azan in Shabwa province, the officials said.Government warplanes came to the aid of the troops as they defended the town, bombing positions of the attacking militants, added the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Ukraine and America’s “Global War on Terrorism”. Is US-NATO Applying the “Syria Model” in Ukraine?
Global Research - Neo-Nazi mobs in Odessa were involved, with the support of the Kiev regime, in a terrorist operation geared towards the killing of innocent civilians. read more...

US Ambassador Kennedy visits Fukushima plant
Associated Press - U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy has gotten a firsthand look inside the Japanese nuclear plant devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Kennedy toured the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant for about three hours Wednesday.

Samsung apologizes to sickened chip workers
AP - Samsung Electronics Co. apologized and promised compensation to chip factory workers who suffered cancers linked to chemical exposure, a rare win for families and activists seven years after the death of a 23-year-old employee from leukemia galvanized a movement to hold the company to account.

French Say Assad’s Forces Used Chlorine Gas 14 Times
NY Times - France’s foreign minister said Tuesday there were strong indications that the Syrian government had carried out attacks using chemical agents, especially chlorine, as many as 14 times in recent months, despite its promise to renounce such weapons in joining the global treaty banning them last year.

151 dead, many trapped in Turkish coal mine
USA Today - An explosion and fire in a coal mine in western Turkey killed at least 151 workers and left hundreds more trapped deep inside, officials said Tuesday.
* Update: 205 dead, many trapped in Turkish coal mine

First Fukushima Employee Files Lawsuit over Radiation Exposure
Natural Society.- A worker named Shinichi, a man part of a team sent to lay electric cables in the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant 13 days after the disaster, has filed a groundbreaking lawsuit over radiation exposure. It is the first of its kind claiming that TEPCO exposed him to dangerously high levels of radiation without his knowledge.

Chinese police charge British former GlaxoSmithKline China head with bribery
MSN News - Chinese police on Wednesday said they had charged the British former China head of drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline PLC and other colleagues with corruption, after a probe found the firm made billions of yuan from elaborate schemes to bribe doctors and hospitals.

Vice President Biden's Son Joins Ukraine Gas Company's Board
ABC News - Hunter Biden, the younger son of Vice President Joe Biden, is joining the board of a gas company operating in Ukraine, the company announced Tuesday, as the West seeks to help Ukraine wean itself off its dependence on Russian energy.

New Mexico county defies U.S. government over cattle grazing
Reuters - A rural New Mexico county has voted to defy the federal government and give a rancher's cattle access to a watering hole fenced off by the Forest Service in the latest dispute over federal control of public land in the U.S. West.

$474M for 4 failed Obamacare exchanges
Politico - Nearly half a billion dollars in federal money has been spent developing four state Obamacare exchanges that are now in shambles — and the final price tag for salvaging them may go sharply higher.

Feds released hundreds of immigrant murderers, drunk drivers, sex-crimes convicts
Washington Times - Among the 36,000 immigrants whom U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released from custody last year there were 116 with convictions for homicide, 43 for negligent manslaughter, 14 for voluntary manslaughter and one with a conviction classified by ICE as “homicide-willful kill-public official-gun.”

Indiana Gets New Military Helicopters for “Homeland Security Missions”
InfoWars - The Indiana National Guard has purchased two military UH-72 Lakota helicopters which will also be used by local law enforcement and the DHS for “homeland security missions”.

"Bouncy house" blows away, seriously injures two young boys
wnyt.com - SOUTH GLENS FALLS, NY – Two young boys were injured after an inflatable bounce house was swept away, apparently by a gust of wind, Monday afternoon. Three children were on the play structure when the wind lifted the inflatable toy 50 feet into the air. The three kids -- ages 5, 6, and 10 -- fell out of the toy as it reached heights of 15 to 20 feet. The two boys were seriously injured.

Eric Holder: No Plans at DOJ to Investigate Secret Waiting Lists and Veteran Deaths at VA Hospitals
Weekly Standard - Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that the Department of Justice doesn't have any plans to investigate allegations that veterans placed on secret waiting lists at VA hospitals died while waiting for care.

Environmentalists Sue US Government to Get Bees Listed as Endangered Animals
Inhabitat - What’s an insect have to do to get on the endangered species list these days? That’s the question some environmentalists are asking after a failed attempt to get a vanishing bumble bee species added to the list. Environmentalists with the Xerces Society got so frustrated with a lack of response about adding the rusty patched bumble bee that they have filed a lawsuit against US government agencies to draw attention to the issue.

(Video) Gold 'Wins' Out In The End: Ron Paul
Kitco News - Kitco News sits with Ron Paul, a keynote speaker at the Metals & Minerals Investment Conference, to talk about gold, the Fed and the US dollar. "It's not about the brilliance of knowing how to manage monetary policy, it's the wisdom to know that you can't manage the economy through monetary policy," Paul said when asked about Janet Yellen's role as Fed chair.

10 states where taxpayers get the worst bang for their buck
MSN - Residents of these states get the least bang for their taxpayer buck. According to a survey released last month by WalletHub.com, people living in these 10 states don’t get as high quality government services — relative to the amount they pay in taxes — as people living in most other states.

VIDEO: Ceremony Honors Veterans Without Families
dfw.cbslocal.com - Five veterans were given a hero's goodbye on Monday. Some were living on the streets. Others spent their last days in nursing homes. But all had served our country.

16 Magnesium Deficiency Symptoms – Signs of Low Magnesium Levels
Natural Society.- So what exactly does it mean to have a magnesium deficiency, and what are some magnesium deficiency symptoms

Grape consumption may offer benefits for symptomatic knee osteoarthritis
interndaily.com - New research presented last week at the Experimental Biology conference in San Diego, California, suggests that regular grape consumption may help alleviate pain associated with symptomatic osteoarthritis of the knee, and improve joint flexibility and overall mobility. Researchers attribute these potential benefits to the polyphenols found in grapes.

The 5 Best Home Remedies for Joint Inflammation
Natural News - Our 5 best home remedies, including lifestyle changes, will help you combat inflammation and its uncomfortable symptoms without the use of drugs. You simply have to look for common items you probably already have in your home or make changes to your lifestyle.

A guide to heavy metals: Exposure points, signs, and removal
Natural news - It has become very clear that avoiding heavy metals is not a simple process. They are now showing up in significant levels in organic food formulations, and are lurking in places that one probably has not even considered. Know the exposure points, physical signs of bodily contamination, and how to start removing them.

Dogs are FOUR times better at detecting prostate cancer than traditional tests
Daily Mail UK - Specially trained Cancer Detection Dogs can detect cancer cells in urine samples. Dogs are almost four times better at detecting prostate cancer than traditional tests. Medical Detection Dogs accurately detect the disease 90 per cent of the time, research has shown. In contrast, traditional PSA tests often give false positives – three in four positive results from the tests turn out to be false and result in unnecessary and invasive tests.
 

Tuesday - May 13, 2014 - Today In History:
1607 - An English colony was settled at Jamestown in present-day Virginia.
1779 - The War of Bavarian Succession ended.
1846 - The U.S. declared that war already existed with Mexico.
1861 - Britain declared its neutrality in the American Civil War.
1864 - The Battle of Resaca commenced as Union General Sherman fought towards Atlanta during the American Civil War.
1865 - The last land engagement of the American Civil War was fought at the Battle of Palmito Ranch in far south Texas, more than a month after Gen. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, VA.
1867 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis became a free man after spending two years in prison for his role in the American Civil War.
1913 - Igor Sikorsky flew the first four engine aircraft.
1954 - U.S. President Eisenhower signed into law the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Act.
1958 - U.S. Vice President Nixon's limousine was battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S. demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela.
1968 - Peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam began in Paris.
1981 - Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca.
1985 - A confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as police dropped an explosive onto the group's headquarters. 11 people died in the fire that resulted.
1998 - India did a second round of nuclear tests. The first round had been done 2 days earlier. Within hours the U.S. and Japan imposed tough economic sanctions. India claimed that the tests were necessary to maintain India's national security.
1999 - In Moscow, the impeachment of Russian President Boris Yeltsin began.
2003 - The government unveiled a new version of the $20 bill - the first to be colorized in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.
2011 - Two suicide bombers attacked paramilitary police recruits heading home after months of training in northwest Pakistan, killing 87 people in what the Pakistan Taliban called revenge for the U.S. slaying of Osama bin Laden.

What does the US government want in Ukraine?
PressTv - Why are people protesting in eastern Ukraine? Because they do not believe the government that came to power after the US-backed uprising in February is legitimate. They do not recognize the authority of an unelected president and prime minister. The US sees this as a Russian-sponsored destabilization effort, but is it so hard to understand that the people in Ukraine may be annoyed with the US and EU for their involvement in regime change in their country? Would we be so willing to accept an unelected government in Washington put in place with the backing of the Chinese and Iranians?

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet in London on Thursday
VOANews.com - The focus of the talks is the U.S.-Palestinian relationship, the State Department said, a possible reference to whether Washington can keep funding the Palestinian Authority if it carries out a unity agreement with the Islamist Hamas faction.

United Nations names first female peacekeeping mission commander
Reuters - The United Nations appointed on Monday the first woman to command one of the world body's peacekeeping operations. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon named Major General Kristin Lund, of Norway, as the force commander for the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Cyprus. She will replace Major General Chao Liu, of China, on August 13.

Healthcare to undergo serious surgery in tough Australian budget
Reuters - Healthcare in Australia is set for its biggest shake-up since the introduction of universal coverage in the 1970s, as part of a tough federal budget on Tuesday that critics fret is taking the country towards a U.S.-style system.
An audit of the Australian economy released last month recommended broad structural changes and a tight rein on costs to stem what the government warns is a looming "fiscal crisis" as the country's decade-long mining boom slows.

Spain to ‘spy’ on 34 million bank accounts
stratrisks.com - The Spanish Government plans to collect data on all of the country’s 34 million bank accounts in what it calls a bid to crack down on money laundering and terrorist activity. But the move has drawn plenty of fire. Spain plans to set up a German-style archive of data on the financial activity of Spaniards and residents in Spain, national daily El País reported on Sunday. The move will see banks having to supply details of all the personal and business current accounts, savings accounts and fixed-term accounts they hold to the Secretary of State for the Economy.

Glenn Greenwald: how the NSA tampers with US-made internet routers
The Guardian - The NSA has been covertly implanting interception tools in US servers heading overseas - even though the US government has warned against using Chinese technology for the same reasons, says Glenn Greenwald, in an extract from his new book about the Snowden affair, No Place to Hide

U.S. Conducts Nuclear Response Exercises
defenseone.com - A Sunday press release announcing the May 12-16 “Global Lightning” exercise explicitly noted that the event’s timing is “unrelated to real-world events.” Observers of ongoing East-West tensions will note, however, that Russia on Thursday conducted its own large-scale nuclear response drill under the supervision of President Vladimir Putin. That exercise was widely promoted in Russian media and included the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile and submarine-fired ballistic missiles. “Exercise Global Lightning 14 has been planned for more than a year and is based on a notional scenario,” U.S. Strategic Command said. Roughly 10 B-52 heavy bombers and as many as six B-2 bombers are slated to take part in the nuclear deterrence exercise.

U.S. confirms second case of MERS
Reuters - U.S. health officials confirmed the country's second case of MERS, a deadly virus first discovered in the Middle East in 2012, and said the patient was in good condition in an Orlando, Florida hospital. The patient, 44, is a healthcare worker who lives and works in Saudi Arabia and traveled to the United States to visit relatives. He was admitted to the Dr. P. Phillips Hospital in Orlando on May 9.

US concerned at sale of French warships to Russia
StratRisks - US officials voiced concern Thursday at the sale of French warships to Moscow as they mulled tougher sanctions on Russia for the political upheaval triggered by the Ukraine crisis. “We have regularly and consistently expressed our concerns about this sale even before we had the latest Russian actions and we will continue to do so,” Assistant Secretary for Europe Victoria Nuland told US lawmakers ahead of a visit next week to Washington by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

US court lifts ban on Russian rocket engines
PressTV- A ban on US aviation companies prohibiting them from buying Russian rocket engines has been lifted after a federal judge ruled the purchases do not violate US sanctions against Russia.

Ohio Measles Outbreak Is Biggest in U.S. Since 1996
An Ohio measles outbreak tied to unvaccinated Amish travelers who visited the Philippines has reached 66 cases — the most in a single state in the U.S. since 1996, health officials said Monday. It’s part of a larger surge of measles nationwide that has topped last year’s 186 cases and is closing in fast on the 220 cases reported in 2011, the most since the highly contagious disease was considered eradicated in the U.S. in 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latest official CDC figures logged 161 cases as of May 3, but there have been dozens more reported since then, officials said.

Quake-Damaged Washington Monument Reopens to Public
WASHINGTON — The Washington Monument, one of the U.S. capital’s most recognizable landmarks, reopens Monday, three years after sustaining earthquake damage. The 130-year old, 170-meter tall marble obelisk sustained more than 150 cracks after a rare 5.8-magnitude earthquake in August 2011.

Bank Of America Would Like To Buy Your Gold, Seeing “No Gains Above $1315″
Zero Hedge - Bank of AMerica notes...It is time to sell Gold. The range trade / consolidation of the past month is drawing to a conclusion. Further gains should not exceed 1315.70 (May-05 high) AND CAN'T EXCEED the Mar-14 high at 1331. Downside targets are seen to 1215.

AT&T in advanced talks to buy DirecTV for about $50 billion says source
AT&T Inc. (T:US), joining the ranks of U.S. TV, Internet and wireless providers racing to consolidate, is in advanced talks to acquire DirecTV for about $100 a share, according to people familiar with the matter.

Study lists dangerous chemicals linked to breast cancer
RelaxNews - Certain chemicals that are common in everyday life have been shown to cause breast cancer in lab rats and are likely to do the same in women, US researchers said Monday. The paper in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives lists 17 chemicals to avoid and offers women advice on how to minimize their exposure.

Watermelon reduces blood pressure and prevents heart disease
NaturalHealth365.com - Cardiovascular disease is currently the leading cause of death in the United States, and factors that contribute to it – such as obesity and high blood pressure – are endemic. One in three Americans is obese, and 60 percent of all Americans either have high blood pressure or are at risk of developing it. New research suggest that watermelon can reduce the risk of heart disease. In a study published in the April, 2014 edition of American Journal of Hypertension, researchers found that watermelon extracts significantly reduced blood pressure in overweight adults. And, the hypotensive effect held true whether the volunteers were under stress or at rest.

Garlic: One of nature's greatest disease fighters
Natural News - Garlic remains a staple in the Mediterranean diet and it is frequently used as a seasoning in its native central Asia. The ancient healing systems of India and China also utilize garlic and often recommend it to people suffering from sickness and disease.

How does green tea inhibit cholesterol? Scientists crack the code
Natural News- Researchers at China's Sun Yat-sen University have discovered one of the mechanisms by which green tea helps lower cholesterol levels, as well as identified at least two of the specific chemicals responsible for the process.
 

Monday - May 12, 2014 - Today In History:
1780 - Charleston, South Carolina fell to British forces.
1831 - Edward Smith became the first indicted bank robber in the U.S.
1870 - Manitoba entered the Confederation as a Canadian province.
1926 - In Britain, a general strike by trade unions ended. The strike began on May 3, 1926.
1932 - The infant body of Charles and Anna Lindbergh's son was found just a few miles from the Lindbergh home near Hopewell, NJ.
1940 - The Nazi conquest of France began with the German army crossing Muese River.
1942 - The Soviet Army launched its first major offensive of World War II and took Kharkov in the eastern Ukraine from the German army.
1943 - The Axis forces in North Africa surrendered during World War II.
1949 - The Soviet Union announced an end to the Berlin Blockade.
1957 - A.J. Foyt won his first auto racing victory in Kansas City, MO.
1975 - U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez was seized by Cambodian forces in international waters.
1978 - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that they would no longer exclusively name hurricanes after women.
1982 - In Fatima President Boris Yeltsin dismissed Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and named Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin as his successor.
2002 - Former U.S. President Carter arrived in Cuba for a visit with Fidel Castro. It was the first time a U.S. head of state, in or out of office, had gone to the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.
2003 - In Texas, fifty-nine Democratic lawmakers went into hiding over a dispute with Republican's over a congressional redistricting plan.
2008 - In the U.S., the price for a one-ounce First-Class stamp increased from 41 to 42 cents.
2009 - Five Miami men were convicted in a plot to blow up FBI buildings and Chicago's Sears Tower.
2011 - A German court convicted retired U.S. autoworker John Demjanjuk of being an accessory to the murder of tens of thousands of Jews as a Nazi death camp guard. (Demjanjuk, who maintained his innocence, died in 2012.)

Ukraine guardsmen open fire on crowd
KRASNOARMEISK, Ukraine (AP) — Armed men identified as Ukrainian national guard opened fire Sunday on a crowd outside a town hall in eastern Ukraine, and an official for the region's insurgents said there were fatalities.

400 US mercenaries 'deployed on ground' in Ukraine military op
RT.com - About 400 elite mercenaries from the notorious US private security firm Academi (formerly Blackwater) are taking part in the Ukrainian military operation against anti-government protesters in southeastern regions of the country, German media reports.

US and Europe planning to ‘cut off’ Russia’s gas supply
London Independent - Britain is drawing up plans with the US and other European countries to “disarm” the threat of President Vladimir Putin using Russian gas and oil supplies as “a weapon” against Ukraine and its Eastern European neighbours.

China wants to build high-speed railway to US through Siberia and Bering Strait
RT - According to a report in the Beijing Times stated on Thursday that the country is considering building a new high-speed railway that would ultimately connect it with the lower 48 states of the US.

VIDEO: UN action needed against chemical arms in Syria says analyst
Press TV - The UN Security Council should act to prevent the use of lethal weapons by foreign-backed militants operating in Syria, says a political commentator.

US Marines carry out first arrests of two Boko Haram members in Benue State
Nigerian Watch - US Marines currently in Nigeria to help the government combat Boko Haram terrorists have made their first arrests taking two male suspects into custody after they were found in possession of arms and ammunition during a targeted search.

Pope Francis urges governments to redistribute wealth to the poor — maybe even half of it
Raw Story - Pope Francis called on “legitimate redistribution” of wealth by the world’s governments to undo the “economy of exclusion” underlying capitalist society. The pontiff appealed Friday to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the heads of major U.N. agencies in Rome, warning that wealth inequality promoted a “culture of death” at odds with Catholic teachings.

Europe safety chief backs flight-tracking after MH370
(Reuters) - Europe's top aviation regulator has called for international action to address concerns raised by the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, while acknowledging delays in responding to a similar disaster in 2009.

Flying ‘3D printers’ could help seal nuclear waste, inventors say
RT - Flying 3D printers, as British researchers call a pair of drone copters they’ve built, could eventually become instrumental in sealing off radioactive waste and transporting it away from disaster zone.

State Dept. amassing explosives stockpile
WorldNetDaily - The U.S. State Department has ordered hundreds of pounds of plastic explosives and thousands of containers of liquid explosives, WND has discovered, shipping them to the location of U.S. centers that typically send sensitive materials to overseas embassies.
According to procurement documents WND obtained through routine database research, State recently put in four separate orders for high explosives – purchases accompanied by tens of thousands of feet of detonating cords with hundreds of blasting caps and fuse igniters.

Show Us the Drone Memos - By Rand Paul
NYTimes - I BELIEVE that killing an American citizen without a trial is an extraordinary concept and deserves serious debate. I can’t imagine appointing someone to the federal bench, one level below the Supreme Court, without fully understanding that person’s views concerning the extrajudicial killing of American citizens.

New secret $69 mn Gitmo camp for ‘high-value’ detainees sought by Congress
RT.com - US House Republicans have advanced funding for a new secret prison at Guantanamo to hold suspects of the 9/11 attacks. The project has long been called for by the US Southern Command despite a lack of support from the Obama administration.

U.S. passenger jet nearly collided with drone in March says the FAA
NEW YORK, May 9 (Reuters) - An American Airlines Group Inc aircraft almost collided with a drone above Florida earlier this year, a near accident that spotlights the growing risk from the rising use of unmanned aircraft, the U.S. air safety regulator said.

Lips sealed: US govt officials banned from talking about leaked documents
RT - US officials will soon be banned from citing leaked data in speeches and written documents. The new policy, which is being pushed through by the head of the NSA, will crack down on “sourcing unauthorized disclosures” that harm national security.

Obama Birth Certificate Shocker: Evidence that Deceased Hawaii Health Director Loretta Fuddy Was Paid Off?
Freedom Outpost - Loretta Fuddy was the Health Director responsible for approving and releasing the "Certificate of Live Birth" that was sent to Barack Obama. Since that time, many have come to the conclusion that this birth record is a forgery. Fuddy died in December under bizarre circumstances.

FBI investigating Bundy supporters in BLM dispute
The Daily Sheeple - Bundy supporters have been adamant in saying no weapons were aimed at the feds or police, that the BLM rangers were the ones pointing guns. From the sound of things, they will be given the chance to prove those allegations because the FBI is coming their way.

Perspective: 3 Days In Bunkerville At The Bundy Ranch
Ben Swann - I knew that it was a remote desert area, and I knew that the group of people gathered there was eclectic at best, having come from all over the United States. But I was surprised at how wrong I was. The camp was quite functional and very organized.

Vermont Officially Passes GMO Lableing Bill, Monsanto Announces Lawsuit
Natural Society - Literally hours after Governor Peter Shumlin (D-Vt), signed a mandatory GMO labeling law into effect in Vermont, the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association (GMA), headed by Monsanto & Dupont, announced that they plan to sue Vermont to prevent the bill from being implemented.

New Xerox/DHS spying traffic cameras are being installed across America
Blacklisted News - Chicago’s switch to a new red-light camera vendor that uses radar technology will allow hundreds of cameras installed at busy intersections to pan in all directions — worrying civil libertarians who fear an invasion of privacy.

Smile! You’re on Camera! Surveillance Video Catches Long Island Cops Beating Man
Adan Salazar - Footage from nearby business catches cops striking man over 40 times, contradicts officer’s accounts... Disturbing footage has emerged corroborating a Long Island man’s account of a police encounter late last month which left him bruised and bloodied at the hands of two Nassau County cops.

Baer’s Daughter Addresses School Board After Her Father’s Arrest For Violating Meeting Rule
Ben Swann - Marina Baer, the daughter of William Baer, confronted the Gilford school board after watching her father get arrested following a debate about mandated sexually explicit reading material assigned to Marina’s high honors English class.

Boy punished at school for refusing to stand for Pledge of Allegiance
khou.com - Mason Michalec says he loves his country but just not the government. “I’m really tired of our government taking advantage of us,” said Michalec. “I don’t agree with the NSA spying on us. And I don’t agree with any of those Internet laws.”

YouTube: Anonymous - Homeless people in US deported to camps
Anonymous - According to MSN, the Columbia City Council unanimously approved the plan, creating special police patrols, that would enforce “quality of life” laws, involving loitering, public urination, and other crimes not necessarily restricted to the homeless population...
* Related Article: S.C. Police Chief and City Manager Oppose Rounding Up the Homeless

Postal service had $1.9 billion quarterly loss
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Postal Service says it lost $1.9 billion over the first three months of this year and is pleading again for Congress to pass reforms to its financial system.
* Related Article: $10 Billion Bailout or Pensions Get It

How 37 banks became 4
hangthebankers.com - If you were wondering how banks got “too big to fail,” here’s a good place to start. This chart shows us how, over the last couple of decades, 37 banks have became just 4 mega-banks. These same 4 mega-banks have, thus far, been immune to the consequences of any and all of their terrible decisions that places the entire world economy in jeopardy.

Chock Full O’ Veggies Quiche
Care2.com - A classic combination of spinach, mushrooms and caramelized onions is a wonderful base for this creamy and light quiche. It’s great for an elegant breakfast or brunch if you want to impress your friends and family.

How bananas are better than pills for treating depression, constipation and more
NaturalNews.com- Bananas are a whole lot more than just a sweet treat or a pleasant addition to a morning smoothie. Rich in vitamins, minerals and other beneficial compounds, bananas can also serve as a natural remedy for treating depression, promoting regularity, boosting brain power and calming the nerves, among other important functions within the body.

Apricots Can Protect Your Eyesight Better Than Carrots
Natural Blaze - We've all been taught that carrots would keep our eyes sharp as a child, but as an adult, it looks like fruit such as apricots are even more important for keeping your sight. Data reported in a study published in the Archives of Opthamology indicates that eating 3 or more servings of fruit per day may lower your risk of age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), the primary cause of vision loss in older adults, by 36%, compared to persons who consume less than 1.5 servings of fruit daily.

The reasons why it is important to soak nuts and seeds
STEPin2 - A recent study from Harvard even links eating nuts to a healthier, longer life. Soaking nuts and seeds is part of the process of preparing them for consumption. It makes them even more potent and releases their healing power.

Gardasil Contaminant Confirmed by Independent Lab
Natural Blaze - In September 2011, SaneVax Inc. informed the FDA that despite all Merck’s statements claiming Gardasil contained ‘no viral DNA,’ Dr. Sin Hang Lee had discovered there were indeed fragments of HPV-11, HPV-16 and HPV-18 L1 DNA firmly attached to Merck’s proprietary aluminum adjuvant in 100% of the samples his laboratory tested.

BLUE Buffalo Response to Nestle Purina Lawsuit
bluebuffalo.com - Nestle Purina filed a lawsuit alleging that Blue Buffalo has lied to you about the ingredients in our pet foods. We categorically deny all of these false allegations and will aggressively defend the integrity of our brand and our products.
* Related Article: Pet Wars: Blue Buffalo Fires Back at Purina Over Food-Quality Claim
 

Friday - May 9, 2014 - Today In History:
1754 - The first newspaper cartoon in America showed a divided snake "Join or die" in "The Pennsylvania Gazette."
1825 - The Chatham Theatre opened in New York City. It was the first gas-lit theater in America.
1901 - In Australia, the Duke of Cornwall and York declared the First Commonwealth Parliament open.
1926 - Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett became the first men to fly an airplane over the North Pole.
1936 - The first sheet of postage stamps of more than one variety went on sale in New York City.
1941 - The German submarine U-110 was captured at sea by Britain's Royal navy.
1945 - U.S. officials announced that the midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately.
1955 - West Germany joined NATO.
1960 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for sale an oral birth-control pill for the first time.
1974 - The House Judiciary Committee began formal hearings on the Nixon impeachment.
1980 - A Liberian freighter hit the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida. 35 motorists were killed and a section of the bridge collapsed.
1994 - Nelson Mandela was chosen to be South Africa's first black president.
1996 - In video testimony to a courtroom in Little Rock, AR, U.S. President Clinton insisted that he had nothing to do with a $300,000 loan in the criminal case against his former Whitewater partners.
2002 - In Bahrain, people were allowed to vote for representatives for the first time in nearly 30 years. Women were allowed to vote for the first time in the country's history.
2012 - President Barack Obama declared his support for same-sex marriage. 

Ukraine deploys 15,000 troops to Russian border, NATO beefs up forces in E. Europe – Moscow
RT - Ukraine has deployed 15,000 troops on its border with Russia, while NATO continues beefing up its forces in Eastern Europe, Russian Defense Ministry stated as the military alliance and Pentagon accuse Moscow of keeping armed forces close to Ukraine.

Tanks, armed assault in Mariupol city center, injuries reported
RT - Shooting, military vehicles and armed fighters clad in black uniforms are reported to be in the center of Mariupol in Eastern Ukraine. Unconfirmed reports suggest one person has been killed and four wounded in the offensive.

VIDEO: Russia imposes fresh sanctions on US, Canada
Press TV - Russia has imposed fresh sanctions against the United States and Canada in retaliation for their new punitive measures on Moscow, the Foreign Ministry said.

CIA's plan to retrench in Afghanistan worries U.S. military
LA Times - The CIA is planning to close its satellite bases in Afghanistan and pull all its personnel back to Kabul by early summer, an unexpectedly abrupt withdrawal that the U.S. military fears will deprive it of vital intelligence while thousands of American troops remain in the country, U.S. officials said.

Taliban declares annual ‘spring offensive’
Press TV - The Taliban militant group in Afghanistan has announced the start of its annual “spring offensive” on foreign forces before the latter’s withdrawal from the war-torn country.

U.S. to send 20 marine brigades in case of North Korean invasion
Inside Korea - The U.S. has established an operational plan to deploy 20 marine brigades to the Korean Peninsula in case of a North Korean invasion into the South, U.S. House Armed Services Chairman Howard McKeon said Tuesday.

Resource rich countries lead global conflict and political violence index
Commodities Now - Over the last six months, levels of conflict and political violence have jumped significantly in 48 countries as a consequence of popular revolutions and regime change, a study released reveals.

Barclays ‘bold simplification’ will slash 19,000 jobs, create ‘bad bank’
RT - Britain’s second-biggest bank will eliminate 19,000 jobs over the next three years, with major cuts aimed at its investment bank, signaling the lender has given up becoming a major player in global investment banking.

Stunning Clip Of How Russia Is "Not" Preparing For Nuclear War
Zero Hedge - Despite all the words - and equity market rallies (confirming that it must be true) - it would appear Mr. Putin and his men have been quietly "not" preparing for all-out war (which makes us wonder, aside from the ICBMs, just what it would look like if they were actually preparing for war).

Activists in Eastern Ukraine Sound Alarm on CIA-led Death Squads
Kurt Nimmo - CIA has overturned political movements unacceptable to the political and financial elite in U.S.

Hillary Clinton Ignored Boko Haram’s Slaughter of Hundreds of Christians
Paul Joseph Watson - While Hillary Clinton has been vocal in drawing attention to the plight of 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria, she was in fact complicit in aiding the militant group in a number of different ways, including delaying the designation of the outfit as a terrorist organization, arming its allies in Africa and ignoring the slaughter of hundreds of Christians when she was Secretary of State.

Latest Propaganda Against Syria: Chlorine Gas From Iran Via China
Brandon Turbeville - [...] in articles such as “West Fears Iran Is Supplying Chlorine Bombs To Syria” by Con Coughlin of the Telegraph, it is suggested that Iran has ordered 10,000 chlorine canisters from China and funneled them to the Syrian government via a regular air freight route between the two countries.

You Can Now Only Buy Heirloom Seeds If You Are Part of a Private Members Club in The UK
Underground Medic - The European Commission is currently drawing up a new law to regulate the sale of all seeds, plants and plant material. The latest draft of the law is even more restrictive than the regulations that we have at the moment.

Fukushima worker files historic lawsuit over radiation exposure
RT - A worker at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has filed the first lawsuit from an employee against plant operator TEPCO due to high levels of radiation he was exposed to during the initial days of the plant’s 2011 disaster.

Police shootings: Albuquerque council meets amid more security; some escorted from session
U.S. News & World Report - Security officials escorted some people from an Albuquerque City Council meeting Thursday night amid new rules designed to avoid the sort of angry confrontation that broke out earlier this week over a spate of deadly police shootings.

Relatives protest plan to move unidentified remains of 9/11 victims to basement repository in museum building
NY Daily News - The city plans to move the unidentified remains from the Medical Examiner's office on Saturday. They will be stored in a repository at bedrock level in the building that will house the National September 11 Memorial Museum.

Judge Nap: If U.S. Forces Enter Nigeria, It's the 'Legal Equivalent of an Invasion'
Fox News - As the tense situation continues in Nigeria, a small team of U.S. soldiers is expected to arrive to assist in the efforts to find hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamic terrorists. The team will be composed of roughly 10 uniformed soldiers from AFRICOM headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.

Democrat Rep. Says Holding Lerner in Contempt is McCarthyism
Kurt Nimmo - For House Democrats, there is nothing wrong with the IRS engaging in political persecution. In fact, according to Rep. Elijah Cummings, holding former IRS bureaucrat Lois Lerner in contempt for refusing to testify in committee hearings investigating the targeting of tea party and constitutional groups amounts to McCarthyism.

YouTube: Judge Napolitano: House Special Committee Could Subpoena Obama
Judge Andrew Napolitano told Megyn Kelly tonight that the House Special Committee on Benghazi could subpoena Barack Obama to testify.

Rand Paul Joined By Grassley In Fight To Release Memo Justifying Drone Strikes On US Citizens
Steve Watson - Senator Rand Paul is winning support in the fight to release controversial Justice Department memos pertaining to using drone strikes against American citizens.

Judge Napolitano: Gov't Can Use Drones to Kill, But Media Can't Use Them to Gather News?
Fox News - Officials in some of the largest media organizations in the United States are accusing the federal government of violating their constitutional rights by not allowing them to use drones to capture video or take pictures.

Missouri Legislature Votes to Withdraw from Common Core
Activist Post - Both chambers of the Missouri legislature have passed a bill to end the state’s involvement in the Common Core educational standards. One final committee approval is required before sending the bill to the Governor’s desk for a signature.

Minnesota Now Requires A Criminal Conviction Before People Can Lose Their Property To Forfeiture
Forbes - In a big win for property rights and due process, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill yesterday to curb an abusive—and little known—police practice called civil forfeiture. Unlike criminal forfeiture, under civil forfeiture someone does not have to be convicted of a crime, or even charged with one, to permanently lose his or her cash, car or home.

New Rules Imposed to Prevent Public Takeover of City Council Meeting
Paul Joseph Watson - Albuquerque City Council leadership have imposed new rules and beefed up security in an attempt to prevent a repeat of extraordinary scenes on Monday when residents protesting against police brutality stormed a city council meeting and forced both councilors and the Albuquerque police chief to flee.

Grandma Wounded By Four Bullets - Shoots Back With .45
Activist Post - Paris Ainsworth was shot multiple times last Saturday night and bears four bullet wounds during a random driveway shooting in Detroit. Sensing something was wrong before the two assailants took aim, she fortunately placed her .45 in her pocket before exiting her car - just in case.

Federal Elections Committee approves bitcoin donations to political committees
Washington Post - In a 6-to-0 vote, the panel said that a PAC can accept bitcoin donations, as well as purchase them, but it must sell its bitcoins and convert them into U.S. dollars before they are deposited into an official campaign account.

Where Are America's 49 Million Hungry - An Interactive Map
Zero Hedge - As of 2012, the most recent year for which data are available, there were about 49 million Americans who, sadly, describe themselves as "food insecure," meaning they have limited access to sufficient amounts of food, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

BitPay Purportedly Raises $30 Million from Investors Including Richard Branson in Larget Bitcoin Investment Round Ever
Liberty Blitzkrieg - Very, very big news just broke in the Bitcoin space. According to TechCrunch, Bitcoin payment processor Bitpay has just raised $30 million in what would be the largest single round of fundraising ever in the Bitcoin space. It slightly surpasses the prior largest round, announced late last year by the other major Bitcoin payment processor Coinbase for $25 million.

House panel subpoenas VA Secretary Shinseki for Phoenix hospital documents
Fox News - A House committee voted Thursday to subpoena Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki for emails and documents tied to an alleged secret “waiting list” for sick veterans at a Phoenix VA hospital.

Thursday - May 8, 2014 - Today In History:
1794 - The United States Post Office was established.
1846 - The first major battle of the Mexican War was fought. The battle occurred in Palo Alto, TX.
1886 - Pharmacist Dr. John Styth Pemberton invented what would later be called "Coca-Cola."
1904 - U.S. Marines landed in Tangier to protect the Belgian legation.
1914 - The U.S. Congress passed a Joint Resolution that designated the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.
1919 - The first transatlantic flight took-off by a navy seaplane.
1933 - Gandhi began a hunger strike to protest British oppression in India.
1943 - The Germans suppressed a revolt by Polish Jews and destroyed the Warsaw Ghetto.
1945 - U.S. President Harry Truman announced that World War II had ended in Europe.
1958 - President Eisenhower ordered the National Guard out of Little Rock as Ernest Green became the 1st black to graduate from an Arkansas public school.
1960 - Diplomatic relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union resumed.
1973 - Militant American Indians who had held the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks surrendered.
1984 - The Soviet Union announced that they would not participate in the 1984 Summer Olympics Games in Los Angeles.
1986 - Reporters were told that 84,000 people had been evacuated from areas near the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Soviet Ukraine.
1999 - The first female cadet graduated from The Citadel military college.

Putin calls for end to Kiev’s military op, postponing referendum in E. Ukraine
RT - Ukrainian right-wing groups are behind the recent events in the country, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, adding that Kiev has not disarmed them. He also called on anti-Kiev protesters to postpone a May 11 federalization referendum.

Boko Haram Terror Attack in Nigeria Opens Door to Africom
Kurt Nimmo - The establishment media has yet to report on a deadly attack in Gamborou Ngala in the Borno State. According to a report posted today by Vanguard, a Nigerian newspaper, the jihadist terror group Boko Haram stormed the town and killed around 300 people.

Nuclear Fuel Fragment from Fukushima Found In EUROPE
The Daily Sheeple - Fukushima did not just suffer meltdowns, or even melt-throughs… It suffered melt-OUTS… where the nuclear core of at least one reactor was spread all over Japan.

Putin oversees planned military drills on countering nuclear strike
RT - President Vladimir Putin has overseen military drills on countering nuclear strike. The planned drills come ahead of the May 9 celebrations dedicated to victory in World War II.

2 southeast Ukrainian regions to hold referendum May 11 as planned
RT - The councils of the People’s Republics of two southeastern cities of Donetsk and Lugansk won’t postpone the referendums on their regions’ future as part of Ukraine and will hold them as planned on May, 11, the cities’ anti-government activists said.

US to withdraw Russia from GSP trade benefits program
RT - President Barack Obama has notified Congress of his plan to drop Russia from the US Generalized system of Preferences (GSP) trade benefits program, the White House said. The program allows duty-free imports for certain goods

China Calls Iran A "Strategic Partner"
Zero Hedge - China is already Iran’s largest trading partner and oil customer and Iran is China’s third largest oil provider... and this week Iran and China’s Defense Ministers vowed to boost military ties following a meeting in Beijing on Monday.

VIDEO: Huge terrorist blast rocks Syria's Aleppo
Press TV - A Thursday report by Syrian state news agency SANA blamed the “enormous attack on Aleppo old city antiquities” on the foreign-backed militants in Syria, saying that the blast also blew up the tunnels that the armed militants had dug under archeological buildings.

Thai Regime Collapses – Preparing for the Fallout
Tony Cartalucci - Thailand’s prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra was dismissed from her position along with several ministers from her cabinet by a Constitutional Court ruling regarding her transferring of key officials to pave way for her brother-in-law’s promotion to National Police Chief.

"Within Ten Years" - All Countries Will Have Weaponized Drones say report
Activist Post - The number of countries possessing surveillance drones has now risen toward 90 as Pakistan recently entered into the market, plus the United Nations itself has launched its own fleet.

Officials: Military exercise causes loud boom, shakes homes
(FOX 13) - A series of loud booms was heard throughout the Tampa Bay area this morning, shaking homes and startling residents. A majority of the reports came from Pasco County, where officials say they believe it was related to a military exercise out in the Gulf of Mexico. They had no further information on it.

Albuquerque Residents Vow to Storm Another City Council Meeting
Paul Joseph Watson - Albuquerque, NM residents have vowed to storm another city council meeting set for tomorrow just days after they forced councilors to flee following a raucous protest against police brutality.

Texas cop guns down 93-year-old woman, but police ‘not ready’ to say whether she was armed
The Raw Story - Robertson County District Attorney Coty Siegert told the station that he could not explain the shooting. “All I know is that they were called out here,” Siegert said. “They were dispatched out here to address the situation. Again, I’m not sure exactly what that situation was, but it was not a random encounter.”

Cruz Releases List of 76 'Lawless' Obama Actions
Daily Caller - Republican Sen. Ted Cruz released a definitive list Wednesday of 76 “lawless” Obama administration actions and abuses of power. Cruz’s “The Legal Limit Report No. 4,” obtained by The Daily Caller, delves into little-known and little-reported details of President Obama’s executive actions.

Obama administration releases disturbing photo of Obama depicted as a king
Ben Swann - Last year, United States Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) criticized Obama for acting “like a king or monarch” as the administration threatened to unconstitutionally bypass Congress on gun control. It seems as though the administration felt the title should stick.

Less than half of 12th-graders can read or do math proficiently
VOX - The high school graduation rate might be at an all-time high, but less than half of American high school seniors are proficient in reading and math, according to new data released by the Education Department on Wednesday.

House Votes to Hold Former IRS Official Lois Lerner in Contempt
National Journal - The House voted to hold former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner in contempt on a 231-187 vote Wednesday, as Republicans work to uncover the depth of Lerner's involvement in the agency's targeting of conservative groups from 2010 to May 2013.

Sandy Hook Skeptics Speak To Newtown School Board
Blacklisted News - A number of Sandy Hook skeptics recently traveled to Newtown Connecticut to question the school board about the many issues surrounding the official story of the alleged 2012 mass shooting. The CT Post wrote an incredibly biased article about the event claiming the audience was largely disgusted with the skeptics which didn’t seem to be the case if you watch the video.

Fewer California Police Are Completing Mental Health Training
D.S. Wood - Many cops in California are not completing a state-certified program that focuses on the training in dealing with mental illness, suicide behavior, and drug use.

Sober woman framed with ‘drunk driving’ charges after cop crashes into her vehicle
Police State USA - A young woman had her neck broken in four places after her vehicle was T-boned by a police officer who blew through a stop sign. Even though she was completely sober, the police charged with drunk driving and tried to shift the blame onto her instead of the party at fault.

FEC chair warns that conservative media like Drudge Report and Sean Hannity face regulation --- like PACs
Washington Examiner - Government officials, reacting to the growing voice of conservative news outlets, especially on the internet, are angling to curtail the media's exemption from federal election laws governing political organizations, a potentially chilling intervention that the chairman of the Federal Election Commission is vowing to fight.

The Economics Of Marriage
Economic Collapse - The marriage rate in the United States has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded. So why is this happening? Well, the truth is that there are a lot of reasons why so many young people are choosing not to get married today. One big reason is money.

Missouri House Overrides Gov. Nixon’s Veto, Enacts Historic Tax Cuts
atr.org - This vote to override the governor’s veto will provide $620 million in tax relief for hard working Missourians. The legislation includes a reduction of the top income tax rate from 6 percent to 5.5 percent and a 25 percent exemption from income taxes for small businesses.

Presenting The President's New $1.2 Billion Helicopter
Zero Hedge - Today was a good day for United Technologies: its subsidiary Sikorsky Aircraft Corp was awarded a $1.2 billion contract by the Naval Air Systems Command to build the VXX: also known as the new Presidential Helicopter. Initial fielding is planned for 2020, with production concluding in 2023.

Blue Buffalo Responds to Purina Lawsuit
Susan Thixton - Blue Buffalo has issued a response statement to the Purina lawsuit. It reads…

How Much Water Should Your Dog Be Drinking?
Dr. Becker - How much water your dog needs each day depends on several factors, including her size, diet, age, activity level, and the time of year. As a general rule, healthy dogs need from ½ to 1 ounce of water per pound of body weight each day.

Family dog lies on lost 3-year-old to keep him warm
ktvu.com - A loyal family dog is being credited with keeping a lost 3-year-old boy safe and warm after he wandered away from from his family’s 2,000-acre farm in Cooperstown, N.D. Luckily, he had his golden retriever/German shepherd mix Cooper with him.

 

Wednesday - May 7, 2014 - Today In History:
1763 - Indian chief Pontiac began all out war on the British in New York.
1789 - The first U.S. Presidential Inaugural Ball was held in New York City.
1800 - The U.S. Congress divided the Northwest Territory into two parts. The western part became the Indiana Territory and the eastern section remained the Northwest Territory.
1847 - The AMA (American Medical Association) was organized in Philadelphia, PA.
1912 - The first airplane equipped with a machine gun flew over College Park, MD.
1926 - A U.S. report showed that one-third of the nation's exports were motors.
1940 - Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister.
1942 - In the Battle of the Coral Sea, Japanese and American navies attacked each other with carrier planes. It was the first time in the history of naval warfare where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other.
1943 - The last major German strongholds in North Africa, Tunis and Bizerte, fell to Allied forces.
1945 - Baseball owner Branch Rickey announced the organization of the United States Negro Baseball League. There were 6 teams.
1945 - Germany signed unconditional surrender ending World War II. It would take effect the next day.
1954 - The United States and the United Kingdom rejected the Soviet Union's bid to join NATO.
1975 - U.S. President Ford declared an end to the Vietnam War.
1984 - A $180 million out-of-court settlement was announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit brought by Vietnam veterans who claimed they had suffered injury from exposure to the defoliant while serving in the armed forces.
1992 - A 203-year-old proposed constitutional amendment barring the U.S. Congress from giving itself a midterm pay raise was ratified as the 27th Amendment.
1997 - A report released by the U.S. government said that Switzerland provided Nazi Germany with equipment and credit during World War II. Germany exchanged for gold what had been plundered or stolen. Switzerland did not comply with postwar agreements to return the gold.
1999 - In Guinea-Bissau, the government of President João Bernardo Vieira was ousted in a military coup.
2013 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 15,056.20. It was the first time it had closed over 15,000.

Odessa tragedy survivor: ‘Many people strangled after escaping the fire’
RT - Radicals set the building with innocent people inside on fire in Odessa, then strangled the survivors and finished them with bats, while police did nothing to prevent the bloodshed. That’s the scary picture a survivor of the massacre told RT.

Kiev Committing Genocide of Russian, Ukrainian People – Russian Official
(RIA Novosti) – The latest episodes of violence in Ukraine constitute a genocide against the Russian and Ukrainian people, Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said during a Balkan forum Tuesday.

IMF Loan to Ukraine in SDR, not US Dollars
Bitcoin Assay - This is the first that we know of a loan by the IMF, headquartered in Washington, DC, as specifying a loan in SDR (Special Drawing Rights) rather than in the customary US Dollar. As with most policy changes from Washington, they ease changes into existence, this seems to be the start in the use of SDR’s.

And The First Thing Ukraine Will Buy With IMF Money Is…
Zero Hedge - So how ironic that, given the massive gas debts that Ukraine owes to Russia (and prepayments pending), and sizable bond maturities pending, the first thing that Ukraine’s National Bank governor will be buying with his freshly minted loan from the IMF is… buy a billion dollars of gold.

FBI agent arrested in Pakistan on weapons charge
Washington Post - An FBI agent is being held on anti-terrorism charges in Pakistan after he attempted to carry ammunition onto a plane in Karachi, Pakistani officials said Tuesday.

Kiev army blocks civilians from leaving Slavyansk – self-defense
RT - Ukrainian troops which have encircled Slavyansk are firing their machine guns at any transport that is trying to move out of the city, preventing civilians from leaving, members of the self-defense forces are saying.RT

Mission Accomplished: Libya Now “Scumbag Woodstock”
Kurt Nimmo - Another “Scumbag Woodstock” exists in Syria. According to the establishment media, the externally generated civil war in that country represents a magnet for jihadists who will, FBI Director James B. Comey warned last week, soon arrive in America to carry out terror attacks. This is the same sort of hysterical fear-mongering Americans have endured since 9/11.

VIDEO: Israel 'crossed red lines' in US spying: Newsweek report
Press TV - Israel’s espionage activities in the United States have "crossed red lines," angering American intelligence officials, according to a new report.

US says to help over Nigeria abductions
Press TV - The United States is planning to send a team of military personnel to Nigeria to help with search for nearly 300 girls kidnapped by the Boko Haram militant group.

1000s of priests punished for sex abuse
Press TV - The Vatican has released statistics showing that over the last ten years, 848 priests have been defrocked and 2,572 others disciplined, in relation to rape or child molestation charges. The comprehensive figures were released for the first time on Tuesday by the Vatican’s United Nations ambassador in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi.

Fukushima operator,TEPCO books USD 4.3 billion profit on bailout
Economic Times - The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said today it booked a USD 4.3 billion annual net profit owing to an electricity rate hike and a massive government bailout following the 2011 disaster.

'Blood and treasure’: US defense chief pushes global military engagement
RT - Facing a trillion dollars in cuts over the next decade and a declining appetite for engagement abroad, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel attempted to rally the faithful as the US struggles to maintain its massive worldwide military presence.

Russian Strategic Bombers Flying Along California Coast
Breitbart - The Associated Press reported Monday that Gen. Herbert Carlisle, Commander of United States Air Forces in the Pacific, acknowledged a significant increase in the activities by Russian long-range strategic aircraft flying along the California coast.

Will Detroit be the first major Chinese city in the U.S.?
Blacklisted News - Chinese homebuyers and Chinese businesses are starting to flood into the Motor City, and the governor of Michigan is greatly encouraging this. In fact, he has formally asked the Obama administration for 50,000 special federal immigration visas to encourage even more immigration from China and elsewhere.

10 Examples Of How "Big Brother" Is Steadily Creeping Into Our Daily Lives
Zero Hedge - Virtually everything that you do is being watched. Do you drive a car? Do you watch television? Do you use a cell phone? As you do any of those things, information about you is being recorded and tracked. We live at a time when personal privacy is dying. And it is not just governments that are doing this. In fact, sometimes private companies are the biggest offenders.

Cecily McMillan's guilty verdict reveals our mass acceptance of police violence
The Guardian - The violence against Occupy protestors was widespread and well-photographed. So why is one non-violent protestor now convicted of police brutality?

Police Execute Dog Outside 5-Year-Old’s Bedroom Window
Mikael Thalen - A Pennsylvania man is accusing a state trooper of excessive force after his dog was shot and killed outside his grandson’s bedroom window late last week.

Star of ‘YouTube Abortion’ Video is a Horror Movie Actress
Paul Joseph Watson - Widespread revulsion in response to a video in which a woman celebrates her abortion by putting the video on YouTube is very apropos given that its star, Emily Letts, is an actress whose most recent movie was a horror flick centered around the slaughter of children.

Jay Carney Refuses To Answer If White House Will Cooperate With Select Benghazi Committee
Truth Revolt - Democrats are already threatening to boycott any hearings or investigation, and with Carney stating repeatedly today that there is nothing to investigate other than “conspiracy theories”, a stonewall is starting to look more and more likely.

Father Arrested For Speaking Out Against Sexually Explicit Book As Required Reading (Graphic Content)
Ben Swann - Baer told Benswann.com that the school’s notice was only sent out after he went to the principal to discuss it, and that the notice failed to disclose the graphic passage in the book. “I can’t believe the school requires this as reading material,” he said. “There’s no reason to expect this kind of thing.”

Virginia proposal would limit size of gatherings at private homes
Fox News - The proposed zoning ordinance limits "group assembly" at residences to 49 people a day. Such gatherings "shall not occur more frequently than three times in any 40-day period."

Federal Court: The Police Can Stop And Search You For Behaving Innocently
Huffington Post - A federal appeals court just ruled that the police have a legal right to stop, search and arrest you for innocent behavior including driving with your hands at the ten-and-two position on the steering wheel at 7:45 p.m., taking a scenic route and having acne.

Sober DUIs for Pot Are 'Absurd,' Arizona Supreme Court Affirms
East Bay Express - The Arizona Supreme Court slapped down a dumb law that criminalized driving while sober in the medical marijuana state. Arizona state law had held that anyone who tested positive for trace marijuana metabolites — which can stay in one’s system for up to six weeks after last use — was automatically guilty of Driving Under the Influence.

20 Huge Companies That Want To Take Your Guns
BuzzPo - Support their competitors any chance you get.

Woman Celebrates Her “Cool” Abortion on YouTube
Paul Joseph Watson - This story underscores the worst aspect of abortion advocates which is the fact that many of them celebrate killing babies as if it’s an ‘empowering’ and ‘positive’ procedure.

The “Economic Recovery” Continues: Businesses Are Being Destroyed Faster Than They Are Being Created
Economic Collapse - Traditionally, small businesses have been the primary engine of job growth in this nation, so the fact that study after study has found that small business creation is being crippled in the United States is a really bad sign for our economic future.

Join Monsanto Stock Plunge May 9 for National Day of Action at Fidelity offices nationwide
(NaturalNews) The stakes have been raised in the fight for food sovereignty with the recent announcement of a nationwide boycott against Monsanto stock.

California Congresswoman Wants A $26 Minimum Wage In Her State
Daily Caller - California Democratic congresswoman Barbara Lee expressed support for a $26 minimum wage in her state — a move Republican congressman Andy Harris encouraged, assuming jobs would rapidly flee California to his state of Maryland.
* Related Video: Jobs Mysteriously Vanishing As Minimum Wage Increases

California Sen. Introduces Bill To Test Out Taxing Motorists For Every Mile They Drive
CBS Los Angeles - KCAL9’s Bobby Kaple reports that Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, introduced a bill to test out the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax because the state’s gas tax was no longer bringing in the revenue it used to due to people driving more fuel efficient vehicles.

Over 50 dead seals, sea lions, whales, walrus recently stranded in Alaska — Dozens of seals suffering from baldness, skin sores
ENENews - [...] Ionizing radiation associated risk for skin defects (i.e. epilation, skin lesions) due to contact and external exposure can also not be excluded. *Marine transported Fukushima radionuclides entering the Bering and Chukchi Seas in the future may represent a new stressor to the ecosystem.

4 Sure Signs That Your Cat Thinks You're Super
Dr Becker - Cats can display mysterious behaviors at times, but there are 4 signs that are clearly intended to show they adore and trust you. Plus other intriguing behaviors that often puzzle cat owners - all explained right here.

Purina Sues Blue Buffalo
Susan Thixton - Filed in court today. Purina Pet Foods is suing Blue Buffalo Pet Foods because (Purina says) they aren't being honest about their ingredients. Gloves are off.
 

Tuesday - May 6, 2014 - Today In History:
1861 - Arkansas became the ninth state to secede from the Union.
1877 - Chief Crazy Horse surrendered to U.S. troops in Nebraska.
1882 - The U.S. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The act barred Chinese immigrants from the U.S. for 10 years.
1915 - Babe Ruth hit his first major league home run while playing for the Boston Red Sox.
1937 - The German airship Hindenburg crashed and burned in Lakehurst, NJ. Thirty-six people (of the 97 on board) were killed.
1941 - Joseph Stalin assumed the Soviet premiership.
1941 - Bob Hope gave his first USO show at California's March Field.
1942 - During World War II, the Japanese seized control of the Philippines. About 15,000 Americans and Filipinos on Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese.
1945 - Axis Sally made her final propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
1960 - U.S. President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
1962 - The first nuclear warhead was fired from the Polaris submarine.
1981 - A jury of international architects and sculptors unanimously selected Maya Ying Lin's entry for the design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1994 - The Chunnel officially opened. The tunnel under the English Channel links England and France.
1994 - Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones filed suit against U.S. President Clinton. The case alleged that he had sexually harassed her in 1991.
1997 - Army Staff Sgt. Delmar G. Simpson was sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping six trainees at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
1997 - Four health-care companies agreed to a settlement of $600 million to hemophiliacs who had contracted AIDS from tainted blood between 1978-1985.
1999 - A parole board in New York voted to release Amy Fisher. She had been in jail for 7 years for shooting her lover's wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco, in the face.
2001 - Chandra Levy's parents reported her missing to police in Washington, DC. Levy's body was found on May 22, 2002 in Rock Creek Park.

Dozens injured, fatalities on both sides in ongoing military op in Slavyansk
RT - There were fatalities among both Kiev loyalists and local militia members after government troops renewed the crackdown on the defiant eastern Ukrainian protester stronghold of Slavyansk. Over a dozen of people have been killed, including some civilians.

Jesus May Have Had a Wife, on Paper at Least
Bloomberg- Was Jesus married? Trust me when I say I have no dog in the fight. But yesterday, when I read an academic article by a Harvard Divinity School professor arguing for the authentic antiquity of a papyrus fragment that includes the phrase "Jesus said, my wife," I was filled with awe and wonder. How, exactly, could a respected scholar, Karen King, who holds my university's oldest endowed professorship, be so confident that the Coptic fragment, first publicized two years ago, is indeed ancient? Almost everything we know about the nature of historical evidence points to a forgery. So what in the name of Jesus's wife is going on here?

NATO’s record 6,000-strong drills kick off in Estonia amid Ukraine tensions
RT - NATO’s three-week 'Spring Storm' drills, involving a record-breaking number of 6,000 troops, have begun in Estonia. For the first time, a cyber security team from France is participating in the military exercises.

New York Times Admits that Russia Is NOT Sending Pro-Russian Fighters Into Ukraine
Washington's Blog - Indeed, even the New York Times now admits that the Russian army is not directly responsible for the anti-government protests in Ukraine.

$10,000 a head: Radicals put a bounty on UK journalist in Ukraine
RT - Ukrainian radicals have put a bounty out on RT stringer Graham Phillips, who is currently working in the east of the country. Also a camera-man working for RT in Odessa has been informed about being on the radicals' radar.

US to unleash IRS on Russian banks
Blacklisted News - As the U.S. attempts to punish Russia for its actions in Ukraine, the Treasury Department plans to start using a new tax law to make it more expensive for Russian banks to do business in the U.S.

New subs, warships, SAMs, troops to be deployed in Crimea
RT - The Russian Defense Ministry is planning to deploy additional forces in Crimea as part of beefing up the Black Sea fleet under a $2.5 billion program. The need for new deployment emerged after the formerly Ukrainian peninsula joined Russia.

US official heading to Europe over Russia sanctions
Press TV - Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen will visit Germany, France and Britain to examine more severe sanctions against Russia in talks with European partners, Reuters reported.

Djibouti call: US leases African drone base, alleged CIA jail for 20 years
RT - The US has signed a deal with Djibouti, a tiny nation in the Horn of Africa, extending by decades the presence of America’s largest military base in Eastern Africa. The site serves as a hub for drone strikes in Yemen and is a suspected CIA secret prison.

132 Nations Want Out of the Cabal Banking System
Nation of Change - Just a few weeks ago, 132 nations decided they’ve had enough of the ‘secret’ money jig we’ve all been dancing to. One of the largest coalitions of developing nations in history has urged Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, to provide, “as soon as possible…alternative options for banking services.”

Resolution Drafted by The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association
cspoa.org - The following was drafted at a meeting of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) on Jan 24, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada and approved by the members present.... We encourage all sheriffs, peace officers and those in public office to sign with us. We also welcome the signatures of all other U.S. citizens. Follow the step by step instructions here to add your name to the resolution.

Nevada Democrat Calls on Officials to Oust Cliven Bundy Militia
KGWN.tv - A Nevada congressman is calling on elected officials in the state to rid a town in his district of militia members who have rallied around rancher Cliven Bundy in his battle with federal land managers.

Not Just Bundy: Feds Monitor This Rancher’s Every Move With Cameras
Off the Grid News - “They have completely ignored what this country was based on and that’s private property and human rights — being an American,” Rancher John Ladd said of the Border Patrol in a disturbing new ACLU video. Among other things, Ladd accuses the Border Patrol of making it impossible to operate the Bisbee, Arizona ranch that’s been in his family for six generations.

Patriot Group Protests Cinco de Mayo Ban on American Flag T-Shirts
Paul Joseph Watson -A protest against a California school district’s decision to ban the wearing of American flag t-shirts on Cinco de Mayo has begun this morning, with demonstrators displaying large flags and banners outside Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill.

Obama Supporters: Not Liking Mexican Food is Racist
Paul Joseph Watson - A new video by media analyst Mark Dice shows Obama supporters in San Diego expressing their view that it’s racist to not like Mexican food.

Trey Gowdy Named Head of Benghazi Special Committee
The Blaze - House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced Monday that he has appointed Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) to head a select committee to investigate the 2012 Benghazi attacks.

VIDEO: Rand Paul starts new drone war
The Hill - Sen. Rand Paul has warned Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that he will place a hold on one of President Obama’s appellate court nominees because of his role in crafting the legal basis for Obama’s drone policy.

Surprised? Jim Fetzer says all NSA intel goes directly to Israel
sott.net - The US National Security Agency (NSA) directly sends all of the intelligence that it gathers to the Israeli regime, a political analyst tells Press TV. "We now know that all of the NSA's spying is going directly to Israel," James H. Fetzer, a professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth, said in a Saturday interview.

$350k govt drone mistakenly sent to Mass. college student
RT - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seems to have accidentally mailed parts of a $350,000 drone to a Massachusetts college student, according to evidence posted online by its lucky recipient which was verified on Monday.

First U.S. Smart Gun Sale Will Trigger Ban on Traditional Gun Sales in NJ
Activist Post - For many gun rights advocates, May Day was a close call for one aspect of gun control. That’s the day that “smart guns” nearly went on the market – which would have triggered a 2002 law in New Jersey requiring that ALL statewide gun sales be ‘smart guns’ within three years of the first date of sale anywhere in the United States.

FL Teacher Banned Bible from 'Free Reading' Time in Classroom
Breitbart - Officials at Broward County Public Schools banned a fifth grader from reading the Bible during “free reading” time, according to lawyers from the Liberty Institute who are threatening to sue the school for violating the First Amendment.

Suspected shooter at Dayton VA medical complex arrested four miles away
RT - A suspected gunman is in custody on Monday after police say he opened fire and injured one man at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical complex in Dayton, Ohio. The gunman, 59-year-old Neil Moore, is a retired employee of the VA hospital.

Another Dead Banker: Andrew Jarzyk Found Dead In Hudson River
Ace News - Authorities say a body found in the Hudson River earlier this week has been identified as that of a banker who disappeared while jogging in Hoboken. But they have not determined a cause of death for 27-year-old Andrew Jarzyk, a Hoboken resident who went missing on March 30.

VIDEO: Cancer is a temporary imbalance. Interview with cancer healing expert Bill Henderson
Chris Wark - Check out this super awesome interview with my friend Bill Henderson, independent researcher, cancer healing expert and author of Cancer-Free: Your Guide to Gentle, Non-toxic Healing. Bill and I got a chance to sit down and talk at the Cure to Cancer Conference in beautiful sunny San Diego last week. [Your Guide to Gentle, Non-toxic Healing is available at ThePowerMall.com]

Honey: A Powerful Anti-Cancer Agent
Green Med Info - Honey is a superlative healing food. We know it has over 69 health benefits, as confirmed by the biomedical literature itself. But did you know it could be of profound benefit in diseases as life threatening and seemingly incurable as cancer?

Unique benefits and uses of essential oils
STEPin2 - Health practitioners and experts swear by these oils in treating acne, respiratory problems, and even memory problems. Let’s take a look at the unique benefits and uses of popular essential oils....

6 Body Parts Doctors Think Are Useless: How Little Do They Know
preventdisease.com - The human body is perfect, period. Any advice coming from any person who attempts to convince you that a part of your body is unnecessary, useless or needs to be removed, has no place in any health profession, let alone the medical field. Here are 6 examples of body parts which doctors think are useless, but really are not.

FDA Approved: List of Irradiated Foods Grows in Order to Rid Pathogens
Natural Society - Irradiated food was previously considered necessary only on very rare occasions, and was originally permitted for only a few foods. With this new rule, not only will meats, poultry, fruits, vegetables, spices, and lettuces be radiated, but now also crab, shrimp, lobster, crayfish, and prawns.

How astragalus benefits people with cancer and low immunity
(NaturalNews) Similar to Echinacea, astragalus boosts immunity by increasing the levels of certain types of immune cells that fight pathogenic invaders. These include macrophages and natural killer cells; the former goes around "consuming" microbial enemies, while the latter attacks and destroys viruses and cancer cells.

Coke, Pepsi to remove controversial additive after thousands sign petition
RT - PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have been forced to drop a controversial chemical from all their drinks, thanks to a petition by a Mississippi teen and an overall worldwide rise in people’s awareness of what goes into their food.

Eating organic foods reduces pesticide exposure by nearly 90% after just one week
(NaturalNews) Just one week on a diet composed mostly (but not entirely) of organic foods can reduce adults' exposure to pesticides by an astonishing 90 percent, according to a study conducted by researchers from RMIT University in Australia and published in the journal Environmental Research on April 29.

Safeguard Organic Standards: 10 Reasons Consumers Buy Organic
(NaturalNews) The Organic Consumers Association (OCA), in a series of action alerts over the past month, has criticized the gradual erosion of organic standards by vested corporate interests in the organic products industry.

10 natural remedies to eliminate varicose veins
(NaturalNews) Varicose veins are swollen, raised veins which could be tender and painful and cause the legs to feel tired, achy, tight and heavy.

Medical cannabis proves miraculous for terminally-ill pets
(NaturalNews) If your pet was sick, you would do anything possible to help it get better, right? Well the verdict is in, and medical cannabis is the way to go.

Monday - May 5, 2014 - Today In History:
1798 - U.S. Secretary of War William McHenry ordered that the USS Constitution be made ready for sea. The frigate was launched on October 21, 1797, but had never been put to sea.
1814 - The British attacked the American forces at Ft. Ontario, Oswego, NY.
1834 - The first mainland railway line opened in Belgium.
1862 - The Battle of Puebla took place. It is celebrated as Cinco de Mayo Day.
1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery in the U.S.
1891 - Music Hall was dedicated in New York City. It was later renamed Carnegie Hall.
1892 - The U.S. Congress extended the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act for 10 more years. The act required Chinese in the U.S. to be registered or face deportation.
1901 - The first Catholic mass for night workers was held at the Church of St. Andrew in New York City.
1912 - Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda began publishing.
1916 - U.S. Marines invaded the Dominican Republic.
1945 - The Netherlands and Denmark were liberated from Nazi control.
1945 - A Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon. A pregnant woman and five children were killed.
1961 - Alan Shepard became the first American in space when he made a 15 minute suborbital flight.
1987 - The U.S. congressional Iran-Contra hearings opened.
2010 - Preliminary plans for a mosque and cultural center near ground zero in New York were unveiled, setting off a national debate over whether the project was disrespectful to 9/11 victims and whether opposition to it exposed anti-Muslim biases.

Avoiding facts? MSM uncertain who is behind deadly Odessa blaze
RT - Despite clear evidence that the pro-Kiev radicals set Odessa’s House of Trade Unions ablaze on Friday killing dozens, the mainstream media is being ambiguous about the causes of the tragedy.

Odessa police release 67 anti-govt activists after crowd surrounds police HQ
RT - Sixty-seven anti-government activists detained by police in the south Ukrainian city of Odessa have been released after a crowd of locals blocked the Interior Ministry building. Those released reportedly included survivors from the deadly May-2 fire.

CIA, FBI agents 'advising Ukraine government': report
(AFP) - Dozens of specialists from the US Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation are advising the Ukrainian government, a German newspaper reported Sunday.

Obama, Merkel threaten broad sanctions in case Ukraine elections are disrupted
RT - United States President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday that the US and European Union are ready to impose broad sectoral sanctions on Russia if upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine are disrupted.

S. Arabia Relocating Takfiri Fighters from Syria to Ukraine
(FNA) - Saudi Arabia has sent a large number of Takfiri fighters in Syria to Ukraine to fight the pro-Russian protesters in the European country.

Ukraine can’t guarantee full transit of gas to Europe, warns Russian energy minister
RT - Russia’s energy minister has warned that the situation concerning the injection of natural gas into Ukraine’s underground gas storage facilities is very critical, and Kiev, along with the EU, must take measures to ensure uninterrupted supply to Europe.

Philippines to give US forces access to up to five military bases
StratRisks - Up to five Philippine military bases will be made available for U.S. forces to rotate aircraft, ships, equipment and troops, Manila’s chief negotiator of a new security pact said on Friday, as the Philippines looks to counter China’s rising power in the region.

John Kerry says Africa has “Natural Resources”, Therefore the US is a “Natural Partner”
Global Research - The report said that “U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry highlighted crises in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and the Central African Republic and urged Africans to demand stability and financial development.”

Over 2,100 dead in Afghan landslide
RT - Officials in Afghanistan say they have given up hope of finding any more survivors after 2,100 people were killed following a landslide in the northeast of the country. More than 4,000 are homeless and all efforts are being made to help them.

Voice Recording From Missing Flight MH370 Was Edited
Zero Hedge - Analysts who listened to the recordings for NBC News did not know why they were edited, but discovered at least four clear breaks in the audio that indicated edits.

Provocation gone wrong: Murky forces instigating Odessa violence?
RT - Video footage filmed during the bloody events in Odessa that claimed dozens of lives on Friday shows a more complicated picture, with provocateurs instigating the violence.

Kiev troops killed, dozens injured on both sides as military op continues
RT - Reports of gun battles are coming from eastern Ukraine again, where local militias are holding several cities against a force of Kiev loyalists. There are deaths among Ukraine troops, Interior Minister said.

Iran, China call for expansion of defense ties
Press TV - The Iranian and Chinese defense ministers have underscored the need for the further enhancement of Tehran-Beijing ties in different areas, particularly in the defense sector.

UN mulls using unarmed drones to monitor conflict in CAR
Press TV - UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous announced on Saturday that the UN was mulling possible deployment of unmanned aircraft systems to observe what is actually taking place on the ground in the restive African country.

Carney’s Response to Benghazi Emails is Criminal
Judicial Watch - White House Press Secretary Jay Carney assumed the latter this week, claiming that new Benghazi documents linking the White House to the cover-up were not actually about Benghazi at all – “it was explicitly not about Benghazi”, Carney said, going so far as to suggest that discussing the cover-up makes for a “conspiracy theory”.

Bunkerville residents sound off about BLM, police, media
(FOX5) - An emotional crowd gathered for a town hall meeting on Thursday evening in Bunkerville. Residents and council members praised militia members gathered there in support of embattled rancher Cliven Bundy, but had nothing but vitriol for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie and the local and national media.

YouTube: Ron Paul: Liberty Defined
Sponsored by The Smith Center for Private Enterprise Studies and The Independent Institute.... At this special event, former, twelve-term Congressman and Presidential candidate Ron Paul will take a candid look at America's increasingly dysfunctional political system. [Ron Paul speaks at the 9:40 minute mark.]

Horror: Why Did This Cop Fire 4 Shots At A Teen Girl, Killing Her?
Daily Caller - Family and friends of 19-year-old Samantha Ramsey are overcome with grief — and demanding answers — after a cop fired four shots into a car the teen was driving. Ramsey was struck by one of the bullets and died on scene.

The murder of Glenn Miller...superspy! Did the legendary band leader really die in a plane crash? Not if you believe the latest Nazi conspiracy theory
Daily Mail - The official version of Miller's death goes as follows: he disappeared over the English Channel in December 1944 while en route to France in a small plane.

Fed’s 260K Acre Land Grab At Vail Lake
Ben Swann - Johnson owns approximately 11,000 acres of land in Riverside County in Temecula, California. His property includes Vail Lake which spans about 1,000 acres. Three million acres of wilderness surround the property. The BLM manages land on the northern and southern sides of this massive property, and both the BLM and the MSHCP have been claiming “habitat conservation protection” rights on about 260,000 acres of land to aggressively restrict what Johnson and other land owners do with their property.

Campus Activists Shut Down Condoleezza Rice Speech At Rutgers
Activist Post - Condoleezza Rice was slated to earn $35,000 for delivering a commencement speech at Rutgers University on May 18th as well as receive an honorary law degree until sustained protests forced her to withdraw (final video below). She was also forced to withdraw from another recent invitation at the University of Minnesota.

USDA Calls Police to Arrest Organic Activists in San Antonio
Natural Society - One of the activists in attendance was Alexis Baden Mayer of the Organic Consumers Association. She was arrested after leading a determined protest against the latest Big Ag antics: the imminent watering down of organic standards by the USDA.

The Number Of Working Age Americans Without A Job Has Risen By 27 MILLION Since 2000
Economic Collapse - Did you know that there are nearly 102 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now? And 20 percent of all families in the United States do not have a single member that is employed.

These Are The 15 US Companies With The Most Offshore Profits
Zero Hedge - 15 US companies that have the bulk of accumulated offshore profits, amounting to roughly $1 trillion in cash, which is never subjet to US taxation, and which financial engineers try to generate the highest shareholder returns on.

Department of Defense to study bitcoin as possible terrorist threat
Fox News - The Combatting Terrorism Technical Support Office is spearheading a program that will help the military understand how modern technologies could pose threats to national security, including bitcoin and other virtual currencies, the International Business Times reported.

Jobs Report: Unemployment Down, But 800,000 Leave Workforce
Minority Report - When the whole of the workforce continues to shrink at the rate it is, the unemployment rate ceases to have meaning. For example, the total unemployment rate, U6 is still shown around 12%, but if the labor participation rate was similar to what it was in 2008, the U6 total unemployment rate would be between 18% and 20%.

Convicted of murder, soldier blames anti-smoking drug
McClatchy - While his homicidal claim is rare _ MacDonald may be the first, and so far only, murder defendant to go all the way to trial with a Chantix defense _ questions about the drug’s safety are not. Others have blamed the prescription pill for suicides, suicidal thoughts or other psychiatric problems.

Colorado: VA treatment records falsified, probe finds
USA Today - Clerks at the Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Fort Collins were instructed last year how to falsify appointment records so it appeared the small staff of doctors was seeing patients within the agency's goal of 14 days, according to the investigation… More recently, a retired doctor, Sam Foote, alleged that 40 other veterans died because of treatment delays at a VA hospital in Phoenix.

The MERS virus: been down this road before?
Jon Rappoport - We are told the first MERS virus case has now arrived in the US. The CDC and the World Health Organization have a new potential pandemic to hype. As I’ve documented in past articles, we’ve been down this road before. Swine Flu, West Nile, Bird Flu, SARS. All duds. All hyped to the sky…and then the case numbers are miniscule.

‘Heroin in a capsule’? Lawmakers Step Up Fight Against FDA-approved Painkiller Zohydro
Fox News - State and federal lawmakers are working in tandem to get the controversial painkiller Zohydro ER permanently shelved, even as the head of the Food and Drug Administration defends the agency’s decision to approve the powerful opiate some critics call “heroin in a capsule.”

1 in 13 children taking psychiatric medication in US
Blacklisted News - A new government survey has found that approximately 1 out of every 13 children is taking at least one medication for emotional or behavioral problems, HealthDay News reported.

Conventional 'yogurt' is junk food disquised as health food
(NaturalNews) Tests done by the Cornucopia Institute, an organic watchdog group that promotes family-scale farming, showed that many farmstead organic yogurt products without the "Live and Active Culture" seal actually contain higher amounts of probiotics than conventional yogurt.

How microbes in the gut influence anxiety, depression
(NaturalNews) We may not give much thought to the 100 trillion microbes living within our guts, but new discoveries within psychiatry have found that these organisms can profoundly affect our moods. In fact, psychiatrists are now exploring the possibility of manipulating these microscopic populations with the goal of treating clinical depression and anxiety -- all without resorting to potentially harmful pharmaceutical drugs.

Breakthrough as Cleveland Clinic begins using Chinese herbal medicine
(NaturalNews) One of the leading academic and research hospitals in the country has just opened its first Chinese herbal therapy center, a breakthrough in the mainstream advancement of what is commonly referred to as "alternative," or natural, medicine.

Type 2 diabetes myths and secrets explained: how I cured diabetes using food, not pharmaceuticals
(NaturalNews) The medical establishment falsely insists that diabetes is a "disease" which can only be "managed," not halted or reversed. But that's false information founded in for-profit medicine, not real physiological science.

Foods That Can Help Protect and Improve Your Eyesight
Dr. Mercola - Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of blindness among the elderly, followed by cataracts. The pathology of both of these conditions has been attributed to free radical damage, and the condition is in many cases largely preventable through an antioxidant-rich diet.

The Trendy Dog Chew That’s an Extreme Choking Hazard
Dr. Becker - Rawhide chews are processed skin, and while some types are safer than others, they all carry a higher choking and intestinal obstruction risk than other types of recreational chews.
 

Friday - May 2, 2014 - Today In History:
1776 - France and Spain agreed to donate arms to American rebels fighting the British.
1808 - The citizens of Madrid rose up against Napoleon.
1863 - Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was wounded by his own men in the battle of Chancellorsville, VA. He died 8 days later.
1865 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson offered $100,000 reward for the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
1890 - The Oklahoma Territory was organized.
1926 - U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to put down a revolt and to protect U.S. interests. They did not depart until 1933.
1941 - The FCC agreed to let regular scheduling of TV broadcasts by commercial TV stations begin on July 1, 1941. This was the start of network television.
1945 - Russians took Berlin after 12 days of fierce house-to-house fighting. The Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria.
1946 - Prisoners revolted at California's Alcatraz prison.
1965 - The "Early Bird" satellite was used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic.
1970 - Student anti-war protesters at Ohio's Kent State University burn down the campus ROTC building. The National Guard took control of the campus.
1974 - Former U.S. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew was disbarred by the Maryland Court of Appeals.
1982 - British submarine HMS Conqueror sank Argentina's only cruiser, the General Belgrano during the Falkland Islands War. More than 350 people died.
1993 - Authorities said that they had recovered the remains of David Koresh from the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, TX.
1994 - Nelson Mandela claimed victory after South Africa's first democratic elections.
1997 - Tony Blair became, at age 44, Britain's youngest prime minister in 185 years.

NATO’s second-in-command says Russia is now an enemy, not a partner
RT - NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow now says that the allied group has been compelled to treat Russia “as more of an enemy than a partner,” according to an Associated Press report published Thursday.

Pentagon says it cannot replace imported Russian rocket engines
RT - The Pentagon cannot find a replacement for the Russian rocket engines it buys anytime soon, a senior official has revealed. The import of the engines has for now been banned via a court order lobbied by SpaceX and based on sanctions against Russia.

Ukrainian Crisis Was Always About Containing Russia
Tony Cartalucci - NATO’s continued existence is hegemonic and its meddling in Ukraine an act of war against Russia.

IMF Demands Ukraine Risk World War 3 in Return For Bailout Money
Paul Joseph Watson - The IMF has told Kiev that if it doesn’t defend eastern areas of Ukraine against pro-Russian forces, or in other words risk going to war with Russia and starting World War 3, that a planned $17 billion dollar bailout package will have to be “redesigned”.

Van Rompuy: Unelected EU Will Control Europe and Flank Russia
Kurt Nimmo - The unelected president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, says the globalist union will eventually control every country on Russia’s western border.

Four hours of confusion: Malaysia releases MH370 report
RT - A preliminary report released by Malaysia’s Transport Ministry reveals that officials didn’t notice for 17 minutes that the missing flight had gone off radar and didn’t activate an official rescue operation until four hours after the disappearance.

TEPCO moving forward with plan to build underground ice wall to contain toxic water at Fukushima
Activist Post - TEPCO is moving forward with its plan to build a underground wall of ice to limit toxic water contamination in the basements of the Fukushima nuclear plant reactor buildings after its severe wounding in 2011.

Ukrainian troops begin special operation in Slavyansk
RT - The Ukrainian army has begun a special operation against pro-autonomy activists in the eastern town of Slavyansk. The city is now blockaded by the Ukrainian military, with 20 helicopters reportedly deployed to crack down on self-defense forces.

Russia slams Ukraine troops' offensive in Slavyansk
Press TV - The latest military assault by Ukrainian forces in the eastern city of Slavyansk deals a final blow to the Geneva peace deal aimed at easing the crisis in the country, a Kremlin spokesperson says.

FBI Releases Heavily Redacted Sandy Hook Records
The Hartford Courant - The FBI has released about 175 pages of heavily blacked-out documents from the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre investigation. Of the 175 pages released in response to a Courant Freedom of Information request, 64 were completely redacted and most of the other 111 pages were heavily redacted.

Nevada Congressman seeks probe of armed militia operations at Bundy ranch
(Reuters) - A congressman is calling for a probe into the activities of armed militiamen who are supporting a Nevada cattleman in a high profile showdown with federal authorities over grazing rights, citing allegations they set up armed checkpoints on local roads.

EMS Worker Tells Mom “We’re Agents of the State” During Home Inspection
Paul Joseph Watson - After a concerned mother called 911 fearing her son was choking, an EMS worker proceeded to conduct an inspection of her house on the premise that she homeschooled, telling the woman “we’re agents of the state”.

Ben Swann, Why RT Has The State Department So Concerned
Ben Swann - Ben Swann was a guest on the new RT show “In The Now” Wednesday, where he was asked about claims by the U.S. State Department that RT is a propaganda channel.

Justice Dept. Launches Covert Sanctions Against Gun Owners
Kit Daniels - The U.S. Department of Justice is currently attacking the Second Amendment by fiat while constantly denying its abuses despite clear evidence to the contrary.

Dash Cam Footage Shows Nevada Deputy Extorting $50,000 from Innocent Motorist
Storyleak - Newly released dash cam footage shows the tactics used by one Nevada sheriff’s deputy to extort large amounts of cash from innocent motorists.

America’s nuclear arsenal still runs off of 8-inch floppy discs
geek.com - People from all over the political spectrum are up in arms this week, following a 60 Minutes report on the state of the US nuclear arsenal. Particularly, the segment exposes the old and seemingly outdated technology that controls and underlies these most powerful of weapons.

Is this even America? University blocks students from handing out U.S. Constitution
(NaturalNews) A pair of students at the uber-liberal University of Hawaii is suing the institution for violations of their First Amendment rights after administrators there barred them from distributing copies of the Constitution, a demonstration of just how little they know about and appreciate the nation's founding legal document.

VIDEO: Judge Napolitano: Popular Vote Would Kiss Away State Sovereignty
Liberty Crier - There’s a growing effort to get rid of the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote for president. Supporters are more than halfway to their goal. However, is it constitutional?

Criminal Charges Against Banks Risk Sparking Crisis
Bloomberg - As U.S. Justice Department prosecutors angle to bring the first criminal charges against global banks since the financial crisis, they’ll have to stare down warnings of uncontainable collateral damage.

HSBC Demands to Know How Customers Spend Their Money
Paul Joseph Watson - An HSBC customer who wrote to economist Martin Armstrong related how the bank, which itself was culpable of acting as a conduit for “drug kingpins and rogue nations” in 2012, is now interrogating its account holders on how they earn and spend their money.

Do-Nothing Congress Works On Loopholes For GE, Apple, And Other Multinationals
Blacklisted News - On Tuesday, the House Ways and Means Committee sent a package of bills to the House floor that would cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars over the next ten years by making permanent tax provisions multinational corporations use to avoid paying U.S. taxes.

Thursday - May 1, 2014 - Today In History:
1805 - The state of Virginia passed a law requiring all freed slaves to leave the state, or risk either imprisonment or deportation.
1863 - In Virginia, the Battle of Chancellorsville began. General Robert E. Lee's forces began fighting with Union troops under General Joseph Hooker. Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded by his own soldiers in this battle. (May 1-4)
1867 - Reconstruction in the South began with black voter registration.
1877 - U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes withdrew all Federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.
1883 - William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) had his first Wild West Show.
1898 - The U.S. Navy under Dewey defeated the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines.
1905 - In New York, radium was tested as a cure for cancer.
1915 - A German submarine sank the U.S. ship Gulflight.
1927 - Adolf Hitler held his first Nazi meeting in Berlin.
1931 - The Empire State Building in New York was dedicated and opened. It was 102 stories tall and was the tallest building in the world at the time.
1937 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed an act of neutrality, keeping the United States out of World War II.
1944 - The Messerschmitt Me 262, the first combat jet, made its first flight.
1945 - Admiral Karl Doenitz succeeded Hitler as leader of the Third Reich. This was one day after Hitler committed suicide.
1960 - Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. Powers was taken prisoner.
1961 - Fidel Castro announced there would be no more elections in Cuba.
1968 - In the second day of battle, U.S. Marines, with the support of naval fire, continue their attack on a North Vietnamese Division at Dai Do.
1970 - Students at Kent State University riot in downtown Kent, OH, in protest of the American invasion of Cambodia.
1986 - The Tass News Agency reported the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident.
1992 - On the third day of the Los Angeles riots resulting from the Rodney King beating trial. King appeared in public to appeal for calm, he asked, "Can we all get along?"
1999 - On Mount Everest, a group of U.S. mountain climbers discovered the body of George Mallory. Mallory had died in June of 1924 while trying to become the first person to reach the summit of Everest. At the time of the discovery it was unclear whether or not Mallory had actually reached the summit.
2011 - U.S. President Barack Obama announced that U.S. soldiers had killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

MF gives green light for $17 bn Ukraine aid package
RT - The International Monetary Fund has approved a two-year $17.1 billion loan package for Ukraine. The immediate disbursement of $3.2 billion will allow Ukraine to avoid a potential debt default.

EU states strike lucrative military contracts with China overriding embargo - report
RT - Europe is powering the military rise of China, approving multi-million dollar deals for the transfer of weapons and dual-use technology – despite an arms embargo stemming from the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, AFP reveals.

India turns to Russia to help supply arms to Afghan forces
StratRisks - India has signed an agreement under which it will pay Russia to supply arms and equipment to the Afghan military as foreign combat troops prepare to leave the country, in a move that risks infuriating Pakistan.

Man Arrested For Criticizing Islam
Paul Joseph Watson - Political party leader Paul Weston was arrested by police and faces up to two years in jail for criticizing the religion of Islam during a public speech in the United Kingdom.

‘Devastating’ implications of drug-resistant superbugs now a reality – WHO
RT - Deadly antibiotic-resistant superbugs are a ‘serious threat’ to world health and no longer merely a prediction for the future, according to a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO). Previously treatable illnesses can now once again kill.

Mission uncertain: Canadian planes leave for Eastern Europe to assist NATO
RT - Six CF-18s and hundreds of Canadian Forces personnel left for Romania to help NATO forces in Eastern Europe amid uncertainty over the scope of the mission. It is the biggest deployment of military aircraft to Romania from another NATO member since the Ukraine crisis broke out.

Risk of nuclear accidents is rising, says report on near-misses
The Guardian - A report recounting a litany of near-misses in which nuclear weapons came close to being launched by mistake concludes that the risk of potentially catastrophic accidents is higher than previously thought and appears to be rising.

Global Acceptance of GM Crops in Decline – New FOE Report
Sustainable Pulse - The report ‘Who Benefits from GM Crops?‘ reveals that in Europe, production of Monsanto’s GM maize, the only GM crop permitted in Europe, dropped in Portugal, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Over 90% of the European Union’s GM crop production is based in just one country, Spain [1]. Globally GM crops are grown predominantly in USA, Brazil, Argentina and India.

Utah Congressman Makes Push To Disarm BLM, IRS
Ben Swann - Congressman Chris Stewart (R-Utah) has called to cut funding for excessive “paramilitary units” used by agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management in the wake of the standoff between Cliven Bundy and the BLM.

Homeland Security Dept. Moves Beyond Terrorism to Check for Pickpockets and Movie Pirating
AllGov - These days the Department of Homeland Security is tackling a whole lot more than terrorist plots. Agents are investigating movie piracy, counterfeit merchandise, and small-time pickpockets. They’re even spending time at schools and senior centers telling kids and the elderly to beware of crooks and perverts on the Internet.

Price of fixing, upgrading Obamacare website rises to $121 million
Washington Times - Fixing the Obamacare website to get it ready to handle a second round of enrollments will cost the federal government $121 million, according to Accenture, the contractor hired to repair the glitchy website after the original contractor, CGI Federal, was fired in January.

16 Signs That You’re a Slave to the Matrix
Waking Times - Not meant to be overtly critical of anyone’s lifestyle choices or personal situation, the following 16 signs that you’re a slave to the matrix are meant purely as an observational approach to helping you identify the areas of your life where you may be missing an opportunity to liberate yourself from someone else’s self-destructive design for your life.

Shock Video: Long Beach Cops Execute Unarmed, Fleeing Suspect, Claim They Felt Threatened
Adan Salazar - Long Beach police worked in tandem with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to execute a fleeing suspect Sunday, later releasing a statement that has been contradicted by eyewitness footage of the events.

Cop Beats Up Young Man with Down Syndrome for Packing…a Colostomy Bag
The Daily Sheeple - Gilberto Powell says the police were following him in their cruiser as he was walking home. The police report says the officers decided to stop Gilberto after they noticed a “bulge” in Gilberto’s pants.

Train Derails In Lynchburg, Massive Fire Erupts, "Flames Stories High"
Zero Hedge - In what can only be explained as a massive oil pipeline derailment, because trains are obviously so much safer when transporting flammable commodities, moments ago another train derailed in Lynchburg, Virginia with numerous railcars falling in the river, and a massive fire erupting with flames that are "storeys high" according to ABC13.

Military Purge Continues As Another General Is Ousted From Pentagon
The Daily Sheeple - The head of the Defense Intelligence Agency is being pushed out of the job after a series of clashes over his leadership at an agency that is under pressure to shift focus following more than a decade of war, current and former U.S. officials said.

Oath Keepers Debrief On Bundy Ranch: What Happened And How
Oath Keepers - Here is more info from Stewart Rhodes and company on the rift between the alleged “leaders” of the militia down at the Bundy Ranch. This debriefing focuses on just a few men who would sabotage Oath Keepers’ mission at the Bundy Ranch. It explains some sequences and some activities which you’ve not heard about before. Related Video: Oath Keepers Debrief On Bundy Ranch

Bostonians to Protest Surveillance and Militarized Police During Urban Shield SWAT Drills
Activist Post - One year after the police lockdown of Watertown following the Marathon bombing, Bostonians who live and work in neighborhoods and communities facing SWAT raids and surveillance will testify at a “speak out” against police militarization on the weekend of the Urban Shield SWAT training in Boston.

Missouri Senate votes to nullify federal gun laws and regulations, 23-8
Tenth Amendment Center April 30, 2014 – By a vote of 23-8 today, the Missouri state Senate passed an “emergency” bill that seeks to nullify virtually every federal gun control measure on the books, “whether past, present or future.”

Can Police Search Your Cell Phone Without A Warrant? The Supreme Court Is About To Decide
Zero Hedge - Two very important cases related to the 4th Amendment protection of cellphone data went before the Supreme Court yesterday. At issue here is whether or not police can search someone’s cellphone upon arrest.

Obama-Biden Vacation Tab Reaches $40 Million — $2.9 Million Alone for Two Obama 2014 Golf Outings
Washington Examiner - he travel costs for vacations taken by the first family and the Bidens have reached over $40 million with the Air Force's revelation that two golf outings by President Obama this year cost $2.9 million, according to the taxpayer watchdog group Judicial Watch.

U.S. Military Veteran’s Violent Arrest Triggers PTSD, DOJ Refuses to Allow Her Case to Be Resolved in Veterans Treatment Court
Ben Swann - A U.S. military combat veteran, Emily Yates, was attending a ‘No war with Syria’ rally in Philadelphia when she was violently arrested by Federal Parks Services rangers for simply asking why she was being told to move.

Obama administration sides with chemical company against cancer victims to avoid liability for sick Marines
(NaturalNews) When Lee Ann Smith's son was 11, she was informed about something no parent ever wants to hear: that he had cancer. Three years later, she steeled herself for yet another diagnosis: Her younger son had developed a large bone tumor in his leg.

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