Houston Police Department targeting man’s best friend?
May 20, 2013 by Kristen
Filed under Police State
According to a recent report, the Houston Police Department has shot and killed 187 dogs since 2010. The department authorizes officers to use any force necessary if they feel threatened by an animal and the officials have defended their officers actions. We take a closer look at why HPD is targeting man’s best friend.
Apple ‘among largest tax avoiders in US’ – Senate committee
Apple has been accused of being “among America’s largest tax avoiders” by a Senate committee.
The committee said Apple had used “a complex web of offshore entities” to avoid paying billions of dollars in US income taxes.
Apple chief Tim Cook will go before the panel on Tuesday. In prepared testimony Apple said it did not use tax gimmicks.
The committee said there was no indication it had done anything illegal.
Apple has a cash stockpile of $145bn (£95bn), but the committee said $102bn of this was held offshore.
Sweden Riots: Youths In Husby, Stockholm Suburb, Set Fires, Throw Rocks After Police Shooting
STOCKHOLM — Gangs of youth angered by the police shooting death of an elderly man in a mainly immigrant neighborhood hurled rocks at police and set cars and buildings on fire in a Stockholm suburb early Monday, forcing the evacuation of an apartment block.
Around 50 youths were involved in the riots in the suburb of Husby, police spokesman Lars Bystrom said.
The youths set light to a parking garage, compelling police to evacuate residents from an adjacent apartment block, Bystrom said. Residents were allowed to return home after a couple of hours.
Around 80 percent of the roughly 11,000 people living in Husby – a drab, low-income neighborhood of apartment blocks west of Stockholm – are first or second generation immigrants.
Bystrom said police responded to calls of burning cars and were met by masked youths hurling rocks at them.
One policeman was attacked by youths kicking him and two others were injured by rocks, local police officer Jorgen Karlsson said. He added around 10 cars were set ablaze, and windows were smashed at two schools and several local businesses.
Karlsson said the dead man was “European,” but couldn’t specify his nationality.
Ray Manzarek, founding member of The Doors, dies at 74
May 20, 2013 by Kristen
Filed under Music/Book/Film/Art
Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist and founding member of The Doors who had a dramatic impact on rock ‘n’ roll, has died. He was 74.
Publicist Heidi Robinson-Fitzgerald says Manzarek died Monday at the RoMed Clinic in Rosenheim, Germany, surrounded by his family. Robinson-Fitzgerald says his manager, Tom Vitorino, confirmed Manzarek died around 3:30 p.m. EDT. He had bile duct cancer.
The Jack Blood Show – May 21 2013
Michele Bachmann Presidential Campaign Investigation Joined By FBI
The FBI has jumped into a multi-pronged investigation of alleged misconduct by the failed presidential campaign of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on Sunday.
While the FBI wouldn’t confirm or deny any involvement in the probe, sources with knowledge of the campaign and the investigation told the Star Tribune that the FBI had made inquiries about former Bachmann chief of staff Andy Parrish, as well as other former staffers.
News that Bachmann’s campaign had drawn an ethics investigation first broke in March, and the extent of alleged violations has only expanded since then. Newer claims include allegations of secret payments to campaign aide and Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson (R), as well as improper use of Bachmann’s leadership PAC funds to pay a political director for the campaign.
Parrish said in a sworn affidavit in April that Bachmann “knew and approved” of payments to Sorenson. Peter Waldron, Bachmann’s former national field coordinator, has also filed a complaint alleging that Bachmann’s campaign funneled leadership PAC money through a fundraising group to pay Sorenson, a claim that has also reportedly drawn the attention of the FBI, according to the Star Tribune. Sorenson has denied these allegations.
Arkansas state treasurer arrested on federal extortion charges
Arkansas state treasurer Martha Shoffner (D) is scheduled to appear in a federal court Monday in connection with extortion charges.
KATV-TV reported on Saturday that Shoffner was arrested at her home by Federal Bureau of Investigation and taken to Pulaski County Jail, where she has been held without bond.
The station also reported that the state legislative joint auditing committee criticized Shoffner in September 2012 after her office cost the state more than $430,000 following the sale of premature bonds. State Rep. Kim Hammer (R), the committee’s co-chair, said the group felt they had information to turn over to authorities for their own investigation.
Fox News Reporter May Face Criminal Charges for Reporting on the CIA
The government will use any and all information at its disposal to find journalist sources, as shown in The Washington Post‘s report this morning on a Department of Justice investigation into Fox News chief correspondent James Rosen, who may face criminal charges for reporting government secrets.
In June 2009, Rosen reported on CIA analysis suggesting that North Korea might respond to new UN sanctions with renewed nuclear tests. In order to determine how Rosen learned of the analysis, which had been issued by the CIA only a few hours prior, FBI investigators used every tool at their disposal: analyzing Rosen’s security access card to determine when he entered and left the State Department building, studying his phone records, and subpoenaing his personal email.
Police retain DNA from thousands of children
May 20, 2013 by Kristen
Filed under Police State
The DNA of thousands of innocent children is being taken by police and stored on the national database, campaigners say on Monday, citing new figures.
Police have taken the DNA of 120,000 children in the last two years, according to figures obtained by the Howard League for Penal Reform.
A total of 4,000 children under the age of 13 had their DNA taken in 2011. Police can take DNA from anyone arrested and store it on the database even if they are not charged or convicted of a criminal offence. The Howard League says the figures show a child’s DNA is being taken by the police once every 10 minutes.
It says since most people arrested are not charged, it means the DNA of tens of thousands of innocent children is being stored on the national database every year.
Medical Marijuana: Big Pharma’s Campaign to Eliminate State-Sanctioned Cannabis Competitors?
As Colorado, California and Washington including 16 other states enjoy freedom under state law to operate legal medical marijuana-cannabis businesses the owners are often faced with arrests and constant harrasment by Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Though some states have legalized the sale of marijuana for medical purposes, the practice remains a felony crime under federal law.
Even if marijuana operators avoid arrests the almighty Feds inflict more damage by imposing astronomical “high taxes” on a state-sanctioned marijuana-cannabis, taxes as high as 75-80 percent. Some dealers, unable to pay employees and overhead, combined with the burden of extra high taxes, must shut down, thus preventing sick patients, preferring cannabis treatment, from getting the care they desperately need.
Cannabis dealers argue that “high taxes” imposed upon their businesses is the Feds political goal: to run them out of business and the bigger picture is to eliminate competition against the giant pharmaceutial industry which makes billions selling drugs to treat illnesses at a higher cost.
But evidence has proved that a person can purchase cannabis from a state legalized operator and receive effective treatment at a much lower cost.
