News You Can Use

[mes5464]

More Americans are leaving the East Coast and heading west | Daily Mail Online

Americans continue to head west, while the Northeast are losing people
Illinois, had the highest percent of outbound moves with 63 percent of people leaving, shortly followed by New Jersey, New York and Connecticut
Idaho is the fastest-growing state and is fourth-cheapest cost of living in US
Mountain West increases in popularity with 54 percent of moves being inbound

[mes5464]

Venezuela Misses Another Debt Payment, Raising Stakes for Bondholders - WSJ

Venezuela has defaulted on another debt obligation, according to S&P Global Ratings, intensifying investor fears about the country’s ability to make more than $9 billion in bond payments due in 2018.



Oil-Rich Venezuela Is Out Of Gasoline | Zero Hedge

The airport is located 76 kilometers away from the city and when they tried to book a cab in advance to take them to the place where they were going to stay, the taxi company said they could not make bookings because there is a shortage of gas and management did not know if they were going to have enough fuel on the day of Josefina’s arrival.

[mes5464]

Elgin Man Told to Stop 'Slumber Parties' for Homeless During Cold, He Says - NBC Chicago

A suburban Chicago resident who was offering up “slumber parties” in his basement for homeless people in his neighborhood during dangerously cold weather says city officials have given him an ultimatum.

Stop the “slumber parties” or the house will be condemned.

Greg Schiller, of Elgin, said he began letting a group of homeless people sleep in his unfinished basement last month during brutally cold nights, offering them food, warm beverages and a cot to sleep on while watching movies.

“I would stay up all night with them and give them coffee and stuff and feed them,” he said, adding that no drugs or alcohol were allowed inside his residence during the evening events.

[mes5464]

German court rules transsexual woman can't be 'mother'

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's top court has ruled that a transsexual woman whose frozen sperm was used to fertilize an egg can only be registered as the child's father.

[mes5464]

Cash-Strapped Venezuela Offers to Pay for Medicines With Diamonds - WSJ

CARACAS, Venezuela—With hospital shelves bare and the government stumped on how to settle $5 billion in arrears to pharmaceutical companies, cash-strapped Venezuela recently offered some foreign suppliers alternative compensation: diamonds, gold and coltan, the rare metal used to make cellphones and Playstations.

[mes5464]

If California has the power to defy immigration laws, could it secede as well? | TheHill

Supporters of California’s newly-minted status as a sanctuary state for illegal aliens have predictably hailed the move as an act of compassion. However, it’s time to call this what it truly is: an act of rebellion by a state against the authority of the federal government that will endanger the lives of law enforcement officials and California residents.

SB 54, the landmark bill which was passed last October and went into effect this month, bans local officials from asking about a person’s immigration status. Golden State law enforcement will only be allowed to cooperate with federal authorities regarding individuals who have been convicted of committing a specified list of felonies or misdemeanors.

“So what?” the open borders lobby might respond. California already has 35 communities that proclaim sanctuary status, so SB 54 will not significantly change anything. That is a staggering gamble for Gov. Jerry Brown and the state legislature to play with the lives of California’s more than 39 million residents. Make no mistake, word of this law will spread quickly in the illegal alien community and make California the nation’s most popular destination for illegal aliens. The result is likely to be an even larger influx of illegal aliens. Among that population will be those who will commit violent crimes. That means more Californians will meet the same fate as Kate Steinle and Jamiel Shaw II: killed by an illegal alien who was drawn to their communities by sanctuary policies.

[mes5464]

South Korea's LG Electronics to introduce new robots at CES 2018

South Korean tech giant LG Electronics said Thursday it will showcase three new "concept robots" at next week's consumer electronics show in Las Vegas
A McKinsey report released in November said that up to 800 million workers could be affected globally by automation and the rise of artificial intelligence
Tech companies are testing robots to carry out various tasks that could affect the services industry, which employs nearly 50 percent of the global workforce, according to the International Labour Organization

[mes5464]

Security flaws put virtually all phones, computers at risk

FRANKFURT/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Security researchers on Wednesday disclosed a set of security flaws that they said could let hackers steal sensitive information from nearly every modern computing device containing chips from Intel Corp <INTC.O>, Advanced Micro Devices Inc <AMD.O> and ARM Holdings.

One of the bugs is specific to Intel but another affects laptops, desktop computers, smartphones, tablets and internet servers alike. Intel and ARM insisted that the issue was not a design flaw, but it will require users to download a patch and update their operating system to fix.

[mes5464]

We need to start doing the same thing here for the poor. This is how me make real change for poor people. We need to break down government barriers to prosperity (licenses, fees, taxes, etc).

[mes5464]

Windsor official backs homeless crackdown for royal wedding | The Sacramento Bee

LONDON
A political storm is brewing ahead of Prince Harry's and Meghan Markle's May 19 wedding over whether to crack down on homeless people and beggars in the well-to-do English town of Windsor.

The wedding will be held at Windsor Castle, the town's most famous landmark and a favored residence of Queen Elizabeth II. It is expected to draw thousands of extra visitors to the picturesque riverside town 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of London that is already popular with international tourists.

Borough council leader Simon Dudley kicked off the controversy by tweeting over the Christmas holidays about the need to clean up Windsor's streets. He then wrote to police and Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May suggesting that action be taken to reduce the presence of beggars and the homeless.

[mes5464]

Meltdown, Spectre: Major chip flaws affect billions of devices - Jan. 3, 2018

Two major flaws in computer chips could leave a huge number of computers and smartphones vulnerable to security concerns, researchers revealed Wednesday.
And a U.S. government-backed body warned that the chips themselves need to be replaced to completely fix the problems.

The flaws could allow an attacker to read sensitive data stored in the memory, like passwords, or look at what tabs someone has open on their computer, researchers found. Daniel Gruss, a researcher from Graz University of Technology who helped identify the flaw, said it may be difficult to execute an attack, but billions of devices were impacted.

[mes5464]

Flash - 'Don't fear death': China's Xi urges blunt call to PLA - France 24

SHANGHAI (AFP) - 
President Xi Jinping has issued a blunt call for China's military to be ready for war and unafraid to die defending the country, as geopolitical tensions mount in Asia.

Xi's exhortation to the world's largest fighting force, parts of which were revealed only late Thursday, came during what state media characterised as a rare address by the Chinese leader to the country's entire military.

[mes5464]

Genetically-modified animals could be sold in UK after Brexit, says Michael Gove 

Genetically-modified animals could be sold in the UK after Brexit, Michael Gove has said.

The Environment Secretary said that “bio-tech changes” are coming which will “challenge us to think about the future” as he suggested gene editing could be used to create “more valuable livestock”.

[mes5464]

Security Guards Hired During Holiday Season Due To Uptick In Crime « CBS Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WJZ)– Baltimore City has passed the 300-homicide mark for the third year in a row, from 2015-2017, and business owners are taking matters into their own hands.

Business owners in Fells Point say the crime is out of control and is scaring customers away, so they’ve hired private security officers to patrol the streets.

Last year, 343 people were murder in the city. The violent spike in crime also found its way to the downtown and Inner Harbor areas.


The small business community has vowed to stop the bloodshed and keep residents and visitors safe. The Downtown Partnership shelled out a staggering $30,000 during the holiday season for extra security.

[mes5464]

Federal Government Cut 16,000 Jobs in 2017

(CNSNews.com) - The federal government employed 16,000 fewer people in December 2017 than it did in December 2016, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

State governments employed 19,000 fewer people in December 2017 than they did in December 2016.

However, overall government employment in the United States increased by a net 42,000 during 2017 because of the 77,000 jobs added by local governments from December 2016 to December 2017.

[mes5464]

Food stamp recipients down 2M under Trump, USDA figures show | Fox News

Since Donald Trump became president, the Dow Jones industrial average has climbed to 25,000 and fewer Americans are unemployed.

Another interesting fact: The number of people collecting food stamps has declined by more than two million.

Data released by the Department of Agriculture show that the number of participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as food stamps, dropped to 42,182,443 for fiscal 2017 – a decline of 2,036,920 from the fiscal 2016 total of 44,219,363.

[mes5464]

Times have not changed.

BBC - Travel - Ancient Rome’s sinful city at the bottom of the sea

Rome’s ultra-wealthy took weekend trips here to party. Powerful statesmen built luxurious villas on its beach, with heated spas and mosaic-tiled pools where they could indulge their wildest desires. One resident even commissioned a nymphaeum - a private grotto surrounded by marble statues, dedicated solely to ‘earthly pleasure’.  

More than 2,000 years ago, Baia was the Las Vegas of the Roman Empire – a resort town approximately 30km from Naples on Italy’s caldera-peppered west coast that catered to the whims of poets, generals and everyone in between. The great orator Cicero composed speeches from his retreat by the bay, while the poet Virgil and the naturalist Pliny maintained residences within easy reach of the rejuvenating public baths.

It was also the place where the rich and powerful came to carry out their illicit affairs.

[mes5464]

Border Agents’ Searches of Travelers’ Phones Skyrocketed, Agency Says - WSJ

WASHINGTON—The Customs and Border Protection agency searched a record number of cellphones and other devices at U.S. points of entry last year, the government said Friday, as more travelers carried phones and as the administration stepped up it hunt for national-security threats and smugglers.

[mes5464]

Hospitals like Cleveland Clinic can and do keep alleged rapes secret, too

The Cleveland Clinic, one of the nation's largest and most renowned hospitals, knew of at least two cases in which one of its surgeons was accused of raping patients but kept him on the staff while reaching a confidential settlement, a USA TODAY investigation has found.

Ryan Williams, a colorectal surgeon accused in police reports by two women of anally raping them in 2008 and 2009, left Cleveland Clinic last summer for another hospital, which placed him on leave after learning of the complaints against him.

[mes5464]

Roseanne: The story behind the grandson who dresses like a girl | EW.com

In one of the more enlightened updates to Roseanne, Darlene’s son Mark (Ames McNamara) likes to dress up in girl’s clothing. But it would be wrong to assume the 9-year-old character is transitioning or is gay. We asked executive producer Sara Gilbert (Darlene) to explain why she created the role of Mark and what fans can expect of his story arc when the reunion begins its nine-episode run March 27 on ABC.

[mes5464]

As Low-Power Local Radio Rises, Tiny Voices Become a Collective Shout - The New York Times

Low-power nonprofit FM stations are the still, small voices of media. They whisper out from basements and attics, and from miniscule studios and on-the-fly live broadcasts like KBFG’s. They have traditionally been rural and often run by churches; many date to the early 2000s, when the first surge of federal licenses were issued.

[mes5464]

A new generation of L.A. Satanists finds community in blasphemous times - LA Times

That, more than anything, is the animating force behind this new wave of interest in both Satanism and the occult (which are two separate things, sometimes mingled together). If satanic rituals of old were centered on smashing Christian orthodoxy and middle American propriety — or, more basely, taking drugs and getting laid — this form of Satanism explicitly uses a huge range of ideas to give shape to the inchoate rage felt by so many — especially women and other marginalized groups.

[mes5464]

Scientists could one day make humans immortal | New York Post

Here are three ways scientists are striving for immortality that are getting so close to success that they would amaze even Bedford — if he ever wakes up.

[mes5464]

In Clash Between California and Trump, It’s One America Versus Another - The New York Times

What had been a rhetorical battle between a liberal state and a conservative administration is now a full-fledged fight.

Just as Californians were enjoying their first days of legal pot smoking, the Trump administration moved to enforce federal laws against the drug. On the same day, the federal government said it would expand offshore oil drilling, which California’s Senate leader called an assault on “our pristine coastline.”

When President Trump signed a law that would raise the tax bills of many Californians by restricting deductions, lawmakers in this state proposed a creative end-around — essentially making state taxes charitable contributions, and fully deductible. And California’s refusal to help federal agents deport undocumented immigrants prompted one administration official to suggest that state politicians should be arrested.

[mes5464]