Colorado Student Injured After Setting Himself On Fire, Authorities Say

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A 16-year-old boy was critically injured Monday after setting himself on fire in the cafeteria at a suburban Denver high school in an apparent suicide attempt, authorities said.

Westminster Police Department spokeswoman Cheri Spottke said the boy didn’t make any threats before starting the fire at about 7:15 a.m. at Standley Lake High School.

“There is no indication there were any threats to any schools,” she said.

Spottke said a custodian was able to use a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze before it could spread. Several other students were in the cafeteria at the time, but none were injured.

She didn’t know how the student set the fire, which caused extensive smoke in the building.

Read more from this story HERE.

Food in the Sky? Highrise Farming Idea Gains Ground

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Yahoo

Photo Credit: Yahoo

Imagine stepping out of your highrise apartment into a sunny, plant-lined corridor, biting into an apple grown in the orchard on the fourth floor as you bid “good morning” to the farmer off to milk his cows on the fifth.

You take the lift to your office, passing the rice paddy and one of the many gardens housed in the glass edifice that not only heats and cools itself, but also captures rainwater and recirculates domestic waste as plant food.

No, this is not the setting for a futuristic movie about humans colonising a new planet.

It is the design of Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut for a 132-floor “urban farm” — the answer, he believes, to a healthier, happier future for the estimated six billion people who will live in cities by 2050.

With food, water and energy sources dwindling, the city of the future will have to be a self-sufficient “living organism”, said the 36-year-old designer of avant-garde buildings some critics have dismissed as daft or a blight on the landscape.

Read more from this story HERE.

Want to Get the Flu? Volunteers Sneeze for Science

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

Forget being sneezed on: Government scientists are deliberately giving dozens of volunteers the flu by squirting the live virus straight up their noses.

It may sound bizarre, but the rare type of research is a step in the quest for better flu vaccines. It turns out that how the body fends off influenza remains something of a mystery.

“Vaccines are working, but we could do better,” said Dr. Matthew Memoli of the National Institutes of Health, who is leading the study that aims to infect up to 100 adults over the next year.

Wait a minute: Flu is sweeping the country, so why not just study the already sick? That wouldn’t let scientists measure how the immune system reacts through each step of infection, starting with that first exposure to the virus.

It’s not an experiment to be taken lightly. After all, the flu kills thousands of Americans a year. For safety, Memoli chose a dose that produces mild to moderate symptoms – and accepts only volunteers who are healthy and no older than 50.

Read more from this story HERE.

Cruz: Obama Should Apologize to Nation in State of the Union (+video)

/11 Comments/in , /by

By Andrew Johnson.

With the bungled launch of HealthCare.gov and the Affordable Care Act causing millions to lose their health-care coverage, Ted Cruz urged the president to use Tuesday’s State of the Union address to apologize to the American people.

“For the State of the Union, one of the things President Obama really ought to do is look in the TV camera and say to the over 5 million Americans all across this country who’ve had their health insurance canceled because of Obamacare, to look in the camera and say, ‘I’m sorry — I told you if you like your health-insurance plan, you can keep it…’”

Read more from this story HERE.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: Examiner File/Graeme Jennings

Photo Credit: Examiner File/Graeme Jennings

Sen. Ted Cruz: Obama should say sorry for Obamacare

By Zack Colman.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said President Obama should apologize for Obamacare during his Tuesday State of the Union address.

“One of the things President Obama really ought to do is look in the TV camera and say to the over five million Americans all across this country who’ve had their health insurance canceled because of Obamacare, to look in the camera and say, ‘I’m sorry,’ ” Cruz said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Read more from this story HERE.

‘It Sounds Vaguely Like a Threat’: Rand Paul Wary of Obama’s Plan to Override Congress

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Brendan Bordelon.

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul is concerned about the White House’s promise to work around Congress through the use of executive orders and administrative fiat, claiming President Barack Obama’s comments to that effect “sound vaguely like a threat.”

Paul spoke with CNN’s Candy Crowley on Sunday about the president’s claim that — although he would like to work with congressional Republicans — he will use his “pen” and “phone” to enact federal law if they fail to approve his policies. “When you hear the president talk about that, what does it say to you?” Crowley asked.

“It sounds vaguely like a threat,” the senator responded, “and I think it also has a certain amount of arrogance, in the sense that one of the fundamental principles of our country were the checks and balances, that it wasn’t supposed to be easy to pass legislation. You had to debate and convince people.”

Read more from this story HERE.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: Examiner File/Graeme Jennings

Photo Credit: Examiner File/Graeme Jennings

Sen. Rand Paul: GOP phrasing ‘somewhat’ to blame for shortcomings with women, minorities

by Zack Colman.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday that his party’s sometimes clumsy word choice when speaking about women and minorities is “somewhat” to blame for failing to connect with those demographics.

Paul, who made the comment on CNN’s “State of the Union,” was speaking of remarks last week from former Republican Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Huckabee said that Democrats are telling women that they “cannot control their libido” without government help, which he referred to as “Uncle Sugar.”

Read more from this story HERE.

White House Won’t Pay ‘Ransom’ for Debt Limit Hike

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Thinkstock

Photo Credit: Thinkstock

White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer on Sunday pressed Republican lawmakers to raise the debt ceiling without conditions, saying that the American people “should not have to pay Congress ransom.”

But Pfeiffer sidestepped questions about whether Obama would veto a bill that did not offer a clean debt hike.

“Our position on this is the same as it was in October and the same as it has been for more than a year,” said Pfeiffer on “Fox News Sunday.” The American people should not have to pay their members of Congress ransom for doing their most basic function which is paying the bills.”

A GOP effort to defund Obamacare led to a 16-day federal government shutdown in October and brought the U.S. to within hours of defaulting on its debt.

Read more from this story HERE.

‘Missing’ Congressman Stockman In Russia as Part of Congressional Delegation; Rips Media for False Reporting

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

By Brandon Darby and Jonathan Strong.

Missing Texas Congressman Steve Stockman told an associate he was headed to Russia to meet with Vladimir Putin, according to an electronic communication reviewed by Breitbart News, and now says he is in London…

Stockman broke his silence on the matter in a text message sent to Breitbart News at 3:26am central time.

“I am on a bipartisan codel. I’m on foreign affairs. Part of my work,” Stockman said, adding that he doesn’t know why a Houston Chronicle reporter said “I’m missing” because “we met with the press every day.”

Stockman also said “I am in a meeting now – London.”

Read more from this story HERE.

_______________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Steve Stockman details overseas travels, rips media

By Brandon Darby and Jonathan Strong.

Rep. Steve Stockman told Breitbart News he traveled to Russia, Egypt, Israel and England as part of an official congressional delegation and ripped the media for what he described as a made-up story about his absence from Congress and his Texas district.

The Texas Congressman said members of the delegation held press conferences in each city they visited and that a reporter for the Associated Press – the news organization which most prominently raised questions about Stockman’s whereabouts – had a reporter at one such event in Egypt.

Stockman said the purpose of the trip was to discuss issues relating to terrorism with foreign governments and said the group of lawmakers met with the President of Egypt and a top-ranking general in Israel.

Though the group of five House members had been scheduled to meet with Vladimir Putin, the Russian President canceled because of meetings in Davos, Stockman said.

Stockman said the group had also wanted to meet with former NSA contractor and whistle-blower Edward Snowden but did not have enough time because of urgent meetings about terrorist threats to the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sen. Sessions: Immigration Spikes Income Inequality

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Jacquelyn Martin, AP

Photo Credit: Jacquelyn Martin, AP

In Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Obama is expected to discuss the plight of American workers. At the same time, he is pushing Republicans to pass an immigration plan making the problem worse by increasing the flow of immigrant workers to compete against unemployed Americans and those struggling to get by in low-wage jobs. Yet, alarmingly, the move is regarded as a part of Obama’s agenda that has a chance of becoming law.

House Republicans should reply to the president’s immigration effort with a simple message: Our first duty is to help struggling Americans find good work and rising wages.

The president’s own economic adviser, Gene Sperling, recently noted that there are three unemployed people for every job available. Wages today have been flat since 2000. Last year, a record one in five American households received food stamps.

This is a national emergency.

So what is the president’s proposal? With three job seekers for every open job, he proposes doubling the number of guest workers entering every year, granting immediate work permits to millions of illegal immigrants, and tripling the number of new immigrants granted permanent residency over the next decade.

Today, the U.S. admits 1 million immigrants a year. The plan supported by the president and Senate Democrats would increase that to 3 million a year, or 30 million largely lower-skill immigrants over the next 10.

Read more from this story HERE.

If You Like Obama’s Executive Orders, You Are Going to Love 2014

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Townhall

Photo Credit: Townhall

The American system of government has as it’s chief executive, a president who is carefully checked by a watchful Congress and a consientious judiciary.

Except, when it isn’t.

Case in point: Our president plans to rule us – not govern us – by using the vast powers of his office and absolute control of the federal bureaucracy to ram his vision of hope and change down our throats. Done without the approval of Congress and with little challenge from the judiciary.

Can he get away with it? Watch him:

The new plan “is to bring all of the government alive in a way we have never been very good at,” said another official.

“We’ll be doing that as aggressively as possible…. and if we succeed, that is a big presidency,” a senior administration official told the Post.

Read more from this story HERE.

HSBC Imposes Restrictions On Large Cash Withdrawals

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: BBC

Photo Credit: BBC

Some HSBC customers have been prevented from withdrawing large amounts of cash because they could not provide evidence of why they wanted it, the BBC has learnt.

Listeners have told Radio 4’s Money Box they were stopped from withdrawing amounts ranging from £5,000 to £10,000.

HSBC admitted it has not informed customers of the change in policy, which was implemented in November.

The bank says it has now changed its guidance to staff.

New rules

Stephen Cotton went to his local HSBC branch this month to withdraw £7,000 from his instant access savings account to pay back a loan from his mother.

Read more from this story HERE.