News You Can Use

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Detroit physician charged with mutilating girls’ genitalia

Detroit — A Detroit emergency room physician was charged Wednesday with mutilating the genitalia of two 7-year-old girls in what is believed to be the first case of its kind brought under federal law.

Jumana Nagarwala of Livonia was charged with female genital mutilation, a five-year felony, and transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, a 10-year felony, according to a complaint unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court.

“According to the complaint, despite her oath to care for her patients, Dr. Nagarwala is alleged to have performed horrifying acts of brutality on the most vulnerable victims,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco said in a statement. “The Department of Justice is committed to stopping female genital mutilation in this country, and will use the full power of the law to ensure that no girls suffer such physical and emotional abuse.”

[Joel]

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Report: White House Mulls Sending Thousands of U.S. Ground Troops Into Syria

Ever since the United States put the fate of the world in the hands of an ill-tempered reality star, people have sought comfort in the thought that Donald Trump might outsource his administration’s most important decisions to the “adults” in the room.

This was a reasonable hope. But it was also one that elided a troubling fact: Nearly all the “adults” in the Trump administration are men who make war for a living.

On Thursday, one week after Trump ordered a missile strike against the Assad regime, the United States hit Afghanistan with the largest non-nuclear bomb ever deployed. When the commander-in-chief was asked to explain the rationale for this unprecedented use of force, he replied, “What I do is I authorize my military.”

“So, we have given them total authorization,” Trump continued.

Our future is up to the generals. Here, according to Bloomberg’s Eli Lake, is what the generals are up to:
Senior White House and administration officials tell me Trump’s national security adviser, General H.R. McMaster, has been quietly pressing his colleagues to question the underlying assumptions of a draft war plan against the Islamic State that would maintain only a light U.S. ground troop presence in Syria. McMaster’s critics inside the administration say he wants to send tens of thousands of ground troops to the Euphrates River Valley. His supporters insist he is only trying to facilitate a better interagency process to develop Trump’s new strategy to defeat the self-described caliphate that controls territory in Iraq and Syria.

…The White House and administration officials say Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford and General Joseph Votel, who is in charge of U.S. Central Command, oppose sending more conventional forces into Syria. Meanwhile, White House senior strategist Stephen Bannon has derided McMaster to his colleagues as trying to start a new Iraq War, according to these sources … White House and administration officials familiar with the current debate tell me there is no consensus on how many troops to send to Syria and Iraq. Two sources told me one plan would envision sending up to 50,000 troops.
“We’re not going into Syria,” Trump assured Fox Business earlier this week. But, according to Lake, the president has yet to hear from his advisors, who want to reach consensus around a plan to defeat ISIS before presenting it to the president. So, the adults may yet change his mind.

After all, what Trump does, is he authorizes his military.

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At least 18 members of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces were killed in an airstrike meant for ISIS fighters.

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Saturday is North Korea’s most important national holiday: the birthday of the Eternal President, Kim Jong-Un’s late grandfather Kim Il-Sung. It’s traditionally an occasion for a big test launch or detonation—and today, the North Korean government announced a, quote, “Big Event.” It turned out not to be so big. VICE News Tonight correspondent Charlet Duboc went to North Korea for the reveal.

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Saturday is North Korea’s most important national holiday: the birthday of the Eternal President, Kim Jong-Un’s late grandfather Kim Il-Sung. It’s traditionally an occasion for a big test launch or detonation—and today, the North Korean government announced a, quote, “Big Event.” It turned out not to be so big. VICE News Tonight correspondent Charlet Duboc went to North Korea for the reveal.

I am shocked at the amount of control exerted over these people. You will come and celebrate a street. You will clap and be happy. Failure to do so will result in punishment.

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Russia Says Evidence Growing Syria Chemical Attack Was Staged - Bloomberg

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a chemical-weapons attack in Syria that provoked U.S. missile strikes on the Middle Eastern country may have been orchestrated.

“There’s growing evidence that this was staged,” Lavrov said at a Moscow news conference with his Iranian and Syrian counterparts on Friday. Publications including in the U.S. and the U.K. have highlighted “many inconsistencies” in the version of events in Syria’s Idlib province that was used to justify the American airstrikes, he said.

Russia, Iran and Syria want an independent investigation and those opposed to the call “don’t have a clear conscience,” Lavrov said. Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on Wednesday that demanded the Syrian government cooperate with an inquiry into the suspected sarin-gas attack that killed dozens of people.

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U.S. May Launch Strike if North Korea Reaches for Nuclear Trigger - NBC News

The U.S. is prepared to launch a preemptive strike with conventional weapons against North Korea should officials become convinced that North Korea is about to follow through with a nuclear weapons test, multiple senior U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News.

North Korea has warned that a "big event" is near, and U.S. officials say signs point to a nuclear test that could come as early as this weekend.

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China Warns of ‘Storm Clouds Gathering’ in U.S.-North Korea Standoff - The New York Times

HONG KONG — China warned on Friday that tensions on the Korean Peninsula could spin out of control, as North Korea said it could test a nuclear weapon at any time and an American naval group neared the peninsula in a show of resolve.

“The United States and South Korea and North Korea are engaging in tit for tat, with swords drawn and bows bent, and there have been storm clouds gathering,” China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said in Beijing, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.

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Feds Collect Record Income and Payroll Taxes Through March--Still Run $526,855,000,000 Deficit

(CNSNews.com) - The federal government collected record amounts of both individual income taxes and payroll taxes through the first six months of fiscal 2017 (Oct. 1, 2016 through the end of March), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement.

Through March, the federal government collected approximately $695,391,000,000 in individual income taxes. That is about $7,387,280,000 more than the $688,003,720,000 in individual income taxes (in constant 2017 dollars) that the federal government collected in the first six months of fiscal 2016.

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NSA-leaking Shadow Brokers just dumped its most damaging release yet | Ars Technica

The Shadow Brokers—the mysterious person or group that over the past eight months has leaked a gigabyte worth of the National Security Agency's weaponized software exploits—just published its most significant release yet. Friday's dump contains potent exploits and hacking tools that target most versions of Microsoft Windows and evidence of sophisticated hacks on the SWIFT banking system of several banks across the world.

Friday's release—which came as much of the computing world was planning a long weekend to observe the Easter holiday—contains close to 300 megabytes of materials the leakers said were stolen from the NSA. The contents (a convenient overview is here) included compiled binaries for exploits that targeted vulnerabilities in a long line of Windows operating systems, including Windows 8 and Windows 2012. It also included a framework dubbed Fuzzbunch, a tool that resembles the Metasploit hacking framework that loads the binaries into targeted networks. Independent security experts who reviewed the contents said it was without question the most damaging Shadow Brokers release to date.

NSA's powerful Windows hacking tools leaked online - Apr. 14, 2017

A hacking group has dumped a collection of spy tools allegedly used by the National Security Agency online. Experts say they are damaging.
The exploits, published by the Shadow Brokers on Friday, contain vulnerabilities in Windows computers and servers. They may have been used to target a global banking system. One collection of 15 exploits contains at least four Windows hacks that researches have already been able to replicate.
"This is quite possibly the most damaging thing I've seen in the last several years," said Matthew Hickey, founder of security firm Hacker House. "This puts a powerful nation state-level attack tool in the hands of anyone who wants to download it to start targeting servers."

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104 Years of the Income Tax: Then and Now | Americans for Tax Reform

• In 1913 the top marginal income tax bracket was 7% -- today it is 39.6%.
   
• In 1913 the marginal income tax bracket range was 1% - 7%. Today the range is 10% - 39.6%.
   
• In 1913 there were 400 pages in the tax code. Today there are 74,608 pages in the code.
   
• In 1913 the family standard deduction was $98,425.45 in today’s dollars. The family standard deduction now is just $12,600.
   
• When the income tax started in 1913, only 358,000 Americans had to file a 1040. Today 148,606,578 Americans file 1040s.

[Joel]

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Former FEC Chairwoman Calls for 'Regulations' of Political Speech on the Internet | Heat Street

Speaking at an event called “Future of Democracy,” Ravel argued the proliferation of “fake news” and political advertising on platforms like Facebook influenced elections. She warned that the lack of disclosure by the creators of these campaigns was becoming a huge problem.

“We know that there’s a lot of campaigning that’s moved to the internet, whether it’s through fake news or just outright advertising and there is almost no regulation of this, very little,” she said. “And so that the disclosure that we expect as to who is behind campaigns is not going to exist soon”

“Some people are even predicting that by 2020 most of the advertising is going to move from television to the internet, and I think this is a serious issue that requires a lot of discussion,” continued Ravel.

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Robots May Help Build Your Next Home and Solve a Labor Shortage - Bloomberg

The future of U.S. homebuilding depends on more people like Cyndicy Yarborough, a 26-year-old former Wal-Mart clerk with no background in construction.

At Blueprint Robotics in Baltimore, she works in a factory that builds houses like cars, on an assembly line, using robots that fire thousands of nails into studs each day and never miss. Yarborough operates a machine that lifts floors and walls and packs them onto a flatbed truck, the final step before delivery to a development site where they’ll be pieced together.

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More like surveillance city.

The Rise of the Smart City - WSJ

Cities have a way to go before they can be considered geniuses. But they’re getting smart pretty fast.

In just the past few years, mayors and other officials in cities across the country have begun to draw on the reams of data at their disposal—about income, burglaries, traffic, fires, illnesses, parking citations and more—to tackle many of the problems of urban life. Whether it’s making it easier for residents to find parking places, or guiding health inspectors to high-risk restaurants or giving smoke alarms to the households that are most likely to suffer fatal fires, big-data technologies are beginning to transform the way cities work.

Cities have just scratched the surface in using data to improve operations, but big changes are already under way in leading smart cities, says Stephen Goldsmith, a professor of government and director of the Innovations in Government Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. “In terms of city governance, we are at one of the most consequential periods in the last century,” he says.

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Google Hire: Job website could let employers see your search history

IN THIS day and age, every boss is going to quickly Google a prospective employee before asking them to come in for an interview.
But now the technology giant is working on project called Google Hire, which The Sun reports will help employers learn perhaps a little bit too much about their new recruits.
It will reportedly be a recruitment tool similar to LinkedIn — however, early reports suggest it will be available through your personal Google account.
If that’s the case, it will link things like your search history and YouTube account with your job applications, laying it all bare for employers to see.

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Hawaii panel asks state to prepare for North Korea attack - Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL

HONOLULU (AP) - Hawaii lawmakers want state officials to update plans for coping with a nuclear attack as North Korea develops nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles that can reach the islands.

The state House Public Safety Committee unanimously passed a resolution Thursday.

Committee Vice Chairman Matt LoPresti says he's not trying to spread fear. But he wants the public to know the government is taking steps to protect them in the worst case scenario.

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China, Russia send ships after U.S. aircraft carrier | The Salt Lake Tribune

China and Russia have dispatched intelligence-gathering vessels from their navies to chase the USS Carl Vinson nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which is heading toward waters near the Korean Peninsula, multiple sources of the Japanese government revealed to The Yomiuri Shimbun.

It appears that both countries aim to probe the movements of the United States, which is showing a stance of not excluding military action against North Korea. The Self-Defense Forces are strengthening warning and surveillance activities in the waters and airspace around the area, according to the sources.

The aircraft carrier strike group, composed of the Carl Vinson at its core with guided-missile destroyers and other vessels, is understood to be around the East China Sea and heading north toward waters near the Korean Peninsula.

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Break away from the USA? The effort to cleave California faces its own split - LA Times

If there’s one thing Jed Wheeler and Marcus Ruiz Evans agree on, it’s that things in California need to change.

The state sends too much money to Washington, they say, and is both politically and culturally out of step with a country that lacks its openness and vitality.

“We can solve our own problems and don’t need to wait on a government 3,000 miles away,” said Wheeler, echoing Evans’ suggestion that Democratic-leaning California would be far better off going it alone as a separate country.

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Protests sweeping South America show rising antigovernment anger - The Washington Post

QUITO, Ecuador — Nearly every nation in South America has been jolted by large protests or violent clashes in recent weeks, a continental surge of anti-government anger unlike anything in years.

On the streets of Venezuela, opponents of the left-wing government are squaring off against riot police nearly every day. In Paraguay, angry crowds sacked and firebombed the country’s parliament building after lawmakers tried to alter presidential term limits. Powerful unions in Argentina crippled the country’s transportation networks this month with a general strike.

Whether leftist or right-wing, the governments of Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and even tiny French Guiana are all facing major demonstrations, abysmal approval ratings or both.

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VIDEO: Berkeley cops sit in patrol car and watch as Trump supporters attacked - The American MirrorThe American Mirror

There were numerous reports from those on the scene that Berkeley police largely stayed back as Antifa agitators took pot shots at Donald Trump supporters on Saturday.

“As the violence escalated police in Berkeley stood down and retreated from the crowds,” reporter Tim Pool tweeted.

“I have never seen so few police at an event like this.”

One observer claimed police “ran away,” despite several Trump rally attendees being attacked.

21 arrested as hundreds of Trump supporters and counter-protesters clash at Berkeley rally - LA Times

Hundreds of pro-Trump demonstrators and counter-protesters clashed Saturday at a “Patriots Day” rally in Berkeley, the third time the groups engaged in violent confrontations on city streets in recent months.

Fistfights broke out near Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, where Trump supporters had scheduled a rally. Fireworks and smoke bombs were thrown into the crowd, and a few demonstrators were doused with pepper spray.

Both groups threw rocks and sticks at each other and used a large trash bin as a battering ram as the crowd moved around the perimeter of the park. One bank boarded up its ATMs before the rally as a precaution.

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Why Americans have stopped moving | New York Post

Americans are stuck. Locked into our jobs, rooted where we live, frozen at our income levels. More than at any previous point in our history, we’ve stopped moving — whether moving up the income ladder or packing up a truck and finding another home. We’ve grown ossified, rigid.

The flip side is that we’re stable. If we weren’t so content, we’d be more willing to gamble, to shake things up, to start a new firm or join one. Maybe we’re fine where we are. But maybe this period of stasis cannot last. Maybe it even portends a period of massive disruption.

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Military Strikes Cause Boom In Underground Bunker Business « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

DALLAS (CBS11) – The Trump administration’s increased military strikes might cause fear for some people. But for one North Texas man, it means big bucks.

Nora Holloway of Dallas is one of those folks who is concerned about the state of the world.

Citing the recent bombings in Syria, Afghanistan and the growing tension with North Korea, Holloway posted online to see if anyone wanted to “go in” on an underground bunker.

“I’m in no position to buy one,” said Holloway. “However, I think that for a lot of people that is a serious concern and a lot of people have done so and will be doing so.”