News You Can Use

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Police Want to Get Rid of Their Pentagon-Issued Combat Gear. Here's Why They Can't.

After Ferguson, many towns are trying to return military gear supplied by the Defense Department—and finding it impossible.

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This is a great example of one reason why everyone should have a year supply of food, some money saved, and be out of debt.

Ebola-stricken Liberia is descending into economic hell

That’s the import of three recent reports from international organizations that seem to bear out the worst-case scenarios of months ago: that people would abandon the fields and factories, that food and fuel would become scarce and unaffordable, and that the government’s already meager capacity to help, along with the nation’s prospects for a better future, would be severely compromised.

They are no longer scenarios. They are real. While these trends have been noted anecdotally, the cumulative toll is horrific.

The basic necessities of survival in Liberia — food, transportation, work, money, help from the government — are rapidly being depleted, according to recent reports by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

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Washington Times settles case with Homeland over improper seizure of reporter’s notes

The Times and its former reporter, Audrey Hudson, took Homeland Security to federal court after an August 2013 incident in which agents entered Ms. Hudson’s home with a warrant to collect information about guns that her husband reportedly possessed in the house. The agents used their access to seize reporting materials from Ms. Hudson, including documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and notes from interviews exposing problems in the agency’s Federal Air Marshal Service.

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SCHOOLS SCRAMBLE TO HELP TEENS WHO CROSSED BORDER

Unaccompanied minors who made up the summer spike at the border have moved to communities of all sizes, in nearly every state, Federal data indicates, to live with a relative and await immigration decisions. The Supreme Court has ruled that schools have an obligation to educate all students regardless of their immigration status, so schools have become a safe haven for many of the tens of thousands of these young people mostly from central America living in limbo.

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STUDY: RECESSIONS CAN POSTPONE MOTHERHOOD FOREVER

A massive new study suggests that for some U.S. women, living through a recession can mean they will never have children.
In fact, the authors project that among women who were in their early 20s in 2008 — early in the so-called "Great Recession" — about 151,000 will forgo having any children as a result, at least by age 40.

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The U.S. Government Is Borrowing About 8 Trillion Dollars A Year

I know that headline sounds completely outrageous. But it is actually true. The U.S. government is borrowing about 8 trillion dollars a year, and you are about to see the hard numbers that prove this. When discussing the national debt, most people tend to only focus on the amount that it increases each 12 months. And as I wrote about recently, the U.S. national debt has increased by more than a trillion dollars in fiscal year 2014. But that does not count the huge amounts of U.S. Treasury securities that the federal government must redeem each year. When these debt instruments hit their maturity date, the U.S. government must pay them off. This is done by borrowing more money to pay off the previous debts. In fiscal year 2013, redemptions of U.S. Treasury securities totaled $7,546,726,000,000 and new debt totaling $8,323,949,000,000 was issued. The final numbers for fiscal year 2014 are likely to be significantly higher than that.

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EBOLA ALERT: U.S. Patient Zero Suspected In Dallas: Travel History and Symptoms Suggest Infection

In a statement released Monday evening, a spokesperson for Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas said the patient is undergoing evaluation for Ebola based on the patient’s symptoms and recent travel history.

Further details on the patient were not released due to medical confidentiality and personal privacy reasons.

“The hospital is following all Centers for Disease Control and Texas Department of Heath recommendations to ensure the safety of patients, hospital staff, volunteers, physicians and visitors,” according to the hospital’s statement. (Source: NBC DFW & MyFox)

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Lawsuit: Capitol Police Officers Keep Jobs After DUIs, Anthrax Hoax

The United States Capitol Police has declined to dismiss a number of its officers who have been arrested for a range of offenses, including driving under the influence, assault and domestic violence, according to a lawsuit against the agency.

All of the officers kept their jobs — after being suspended, placed on administrative leave or given light duty as their cases were adjudicated. In one case, an officer who pleaded guilty to child pornography charges was allowed to retire honorably.

The allegations — which paint a disturbing portrait of the Capitol Police — are included in a federal lawsuit quietly filed last month by a veteran officer.

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Author Offers Warning To US About Big Government From Italy

“You are already better off, but if you will go on increasing big government and cracking down on entrepreneurs you could soon become like Italy,” Borghi told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “That’s why, in my book, I say: ‘You shouldn’t give up American Dream to follow Italian nightmare.’”

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Regulation Charges $125 for Photo Permit at Nashville Parks

Updated:

Monday, September 29 2014, 09:43 PM CDT Stream WZTV Fox 17 Newscasts LIVE starting with Fox 17 This Morning at 4:30am, News at 5:30pm and News at 9pm & 10 pm. UPDATE (9/29, 9:42 PM): Metro parks spokeswoman Jackie Jones tells FOX 17 the security guard was mistaken to ask an amateur photographer for a photo permit.

ORIGINAL:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Roger Susanin) -- A little-known Metro Parks & Recreation regulation requires people pay $125 for a permit to take photos or shoot video at Nashville public parks. Local amateur photographer Darwin Alberto said he was recently told he would need to get a permit if he wanted to take photos at the Parthenon. FOX 17's Roger Susanin reports.

Photographers face fines for taking pictures in National Forests

ree speech is under attack as the federal government is attempting to institute a permitting system for photography taken on so-called “public land” controlled by the U.S. Forest Service. Under the directive, professional photographers will be obligated to purchase a “special-use permit” for the privilege of shooting pictures inside tax-funded national forests.

In usual form, the restrictions are being manifested gradually — first targeting photographers who make their living off of shooting pictures. Under the proposed directive, commercial photographers will face fees of $30 to $800 per day to professionally document the beauty of the parks.

“We take your First Amendment rights very seriously,” paradoxically stated U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell. “The directive pertains to commercial photography and filming only.”

What the forest bureaucrat fails to acknowledge is that “commercial photography and filming” is inextricably tied to the First Amendment. The right to free speech does not end when the product holds value to another party. No distinction between casual and professional speech is made in the constitution.

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Drought-conscious residents turn the water tables on public agencies

As officials crack down on homeowners who waste water, more drought-conscious Californians are using social media to broadcast video of what appear to be government agencies breaking their own water-use rules: sprinklers running at city parks in the middle of the day, public workers hosing grass until it becomes a muddy mess. They are also filing an increasing number of complaints about wasteful water use by their neighbors and on city property.

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Janna Darnelle: Redefining marriage hurts women, children

Every same-sex family can only exist by manipulating nature. Behind the happy façade of many families headed by same-sex couples, we see relationships that are built from brokenness. They represent covenants broken, love abandoned and responsibilities crushed. They are built on betrayal, lies and deep wounds.

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LOCAL MEDIA: SIERRA LEONE GOVERNMENT CANNOT ACCOUNT FOR MORE THAN 1,000 EBOLA PATIENTS

Sierra Leone's largest newspaper, the Awareness Times, is reporting with alarm that at least 1,028 Ebola patients appear to be missing in the country, as official Ministry of Health statistics account for a smaller number of combined victims and survivors of the disease than the total number of registered cases.

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Kroger Under Fire For Firearm Policies

Kroger, the nation’s largest supermarket chain, has been under fire from the Michael Bloomberg-backed gun control group, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America for months — and Senate Democrats are jumping on the bandwagon.

In a letter penned to Kroger’s CEO W. Rodney McMullen, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy pressured the grocer “to adopt a policy that would prohibit the open carry of firearms in your stores… In doing so, Kroger would be sending an important message about your commitment to the safety of your employees and customers.”

The letter, The Hill reports, implies that the sight of openly carried firearms confuses and terrifies Kroger employees.

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U.S. Law Enforcement Seeks to Halt Apple-Google Encryption of Mobile Data

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What the Pentagon has done, is to disperse heavy military equipment throughout the country; and getting the police departments (locals) to maintain the equipment for them.

Prelude to martial law?

Agencies can't return or trade equipment without Defense Department approval, and because the Pentagon technically still owns the equipment, they can't sell it.

According to interviews with state officials running point between the Pentagon and police, the Defense Department prefers to leave equipment in circulation whenever possible. "It's a low-cost storage method for them," says Robb Davis, the mayor pro tem of Davis. His town is trying to shake its MRAP. "They're dumping these vehicles on us and saying, 'Hey, these are still ours, but you have to maintain them for us.'"

Police departments, in most cases, bear the costs of shipping the equipment to its new home. Making things more difficult, as the Defense Department reevaluates the program this fall, the agency temporarily closed the portion of its website that allows police departments to request returns.

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Holder urges tech companies to leave device backdoors open for police

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said on Tuesday that new forms of encryption capable of locking law enforcement officials out of popular electronic devices imperil investigations of kidnappers and sexual predators, putting children at increased risk.

“It is fully possible to permit law enforcement to do its job while still adequately protecting personal privacy,” Holder said at a conference on child sexual abuse, according to a text of his prepared remarks. “When a child is in danger, law enforcement needs to be able to take every legally available step to quickly find and protect the child and to stop those that abuse children. It is worrisome to see companies thwarting our ability to do so.”

In his comments, Holder became the highest government official to publicly chastise technology companies for developing systems that make it difficult for law enforcement officials to collect potential evidence, even when they have search warrants. Though he didn’t mention Apple and Google by name, his remarks followed their announcements this month of new smartphone encryption policies that have sparked a sharp government response, including from FBI Director James B. Comey last week.

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Gov. Jerry Brown Signs California Gun Restriction

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill making California the first state that allows family members to ask a judge to remove firearms from a relative who appears to pose a threat.

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Case of Ebola Confirmed in Dallas: CDC

The first case of the Ebola virus has been diagnosed in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Tuesday.

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N.H. Cop Involved in Ridiculous and Deadly Drug Bust Could Get Job Back Despite Being Fired for Pattern of Misconduct

Last year, Officer Joseph Kelley of the Weare Police Department in New Hampshire supervised a drug bust where cops lured a man high on cocaine and heroin to the main thoroughway in town to bust him buying drugs, and then shot and killed him when, they say, he sped his car toward them.

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Top doc: 'Several people were exposed,' more will be infected by Dallas Ebola case

A former Food and Drug Administration chief scientist and top infectious disease specialist said that several people were exposed to the Ebola virus by the unidentified patient in Dallas, America’s first case, and it’s likely that many more will be infected.

Dr. Jesse L. Goodman, now a professor of medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center, said while the nation shouldn’t panic, it’s best to prepare for the worst.

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Bay Area Water Agency Offering Rebates Up To $100 For Rainwater Collection

REDWOOD CITY (KPIX 5) — The finishing touches are being put on a plan to give people a rebate of up to $100 on their water bills.
All you have to start with is one barrel for your water collection system and you could get money back.

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'Creeped Out' Wisconsin Reporter Mad at Obama/Dem Attempt to Stop Her From Talking to Crowd

“[A]ssigned to cover Michelle Obama’s speech today and was told by a Mary Burke aide and one for the White House that I could not speak to the people in the crowd,” she said on her Facebook page. “To say that I was creeped out is an understatement. This is what reporters do in America: we speak to people. At least that’s how I’ve been doing things — at all kinds of political events — since 1979.”

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This is such a self fulfilling prophecy. "We think you pose a threat." Then, if you do ANYTHING, they were right.

Gov. Jerry Brown signs California gun restriction

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California will become the first state that allows family members to ask a judge to remove firearms from a relative who appears to pose a threat, under legislation Gov. Jerry Brown said Tuesday he had signed.