‘I Know I’m Dying’: Two Mississippi Cops Shot to Death During Traffic Stop Horror

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ms-fb-officers-1024x768Two Mississippi police officers — one a rookie — were shot to death during an evening traffic turned violent, a state law enforcement spokesman said Sunday. Three suspects were in custody, including two who are charged with capital murder.

The deaths of the officers are the first to hit the southern Mississippi city of Hattiesburg in three decades — and come amid a national debate on policing, race and the use of deadly force, following the recent killings of unarmed black men by police in Missouri, South Carolina and elsewhere.

The officers’ deaths also follow by a day the funeral of a New York City officer who was shot in the head while stopping a man suspected of carrying a handgun.

Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, told The Associated Press that 29-year-old Marvin Banks and 22-year-old Joanie Calloway were each charged with two counts of capital murder . . .

“At this point a weapon has not been recovered. However, warrants have been issued to search several properties in the Hattiesburg area. We are hopeful and believe that the murder weapon will be recovered,” Strain added. “At this point, it appears to have been only one weapon.” (Read more from “‘I Know I’m Dying’: Two Mississippi Cops Shot to Death During Traffic Stop Horror” HERE)

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Congress and Obama Administration Make Shocking, Arrogant Claims Before Two Separate Courts

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Photo Credit: The Intercept

Photo Credit: The Intercept

By Lee Fang. In a little-noticed brief filed last summer, lawyers for the House of Representatives claimed that an SEC investigation of congressional insider trading should be blocked on principle, because lawmakers and their staff are constitutionally protected from such inquiries given the nature of their work.

The legal team led by Kerry W. Kircher, who was appointed House General Counsel by Speaker John Boehner in 2011, claimed that the insider trading probe violated the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branch.

In 2012, members of Congress patted themselves on the back for passing the STOCK Act, a bill meant to curb insider trading for lawmakers and their staff. “We all know that Washington is broken and today members of both parties took a big step forward to fix it,” said Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, upon passage of the law.

But as the Securities and Exchange Commission made news with the first major investigation of political insider trading, Congress moved to block the inquiry.

The SEC investigation focused on how Brian Sutter, then a staffer for the House Ways and Means Committee, allegedly passed along information about an upcoming Medicare decision to a lobbyist, who then shared the tip with other firms. Leading hedge funds used the insider tip to trade on health insurance stocks that were affected by the soon-to-be announced Medicare decision. (Read more about Congress and Obama Administration making shocking judicial claims HERE)

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U.S. Government: We Can Classify Anything and Judges Can’t Stop Us

By Sam Sacks. At a hearing today on a lawsuit seeking to make videotapes of force-feedings at Guantánamo public, Justice Department attorneys argued that the courts cannot order evidence used in trial to be unsealed if it has been classified by the government. “We don’t think there is a First Amendment right to classified documents,” stated Justice Department lawyer Catherine Dorsey.

The judges at the D.C. Court of Appeals appeared skeptical. Chief Judge Merrick Garland characterized the government’s position as tantamount to claiming the court “has absolutely no authority” to unseal evidence even if it’s clear the government’s bid to keep it secret is based on “irrationality” or that it’s “hiding something.”

“That is our position,” Dorsey agreed. She added that a more appropriate tool to compel the release of the videos was through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Sixteen media organizations, including First Look Media, are seeking footage of Abu Wa’el Dhiab being repeatedly force-fed at Guantánamo. Dhiab was held by the U.S. for 12 years without charges or trial before being released to Uruguay last December.

“There is a public right at stake,” David Schultz told the panel of judges on behalf of the media outlets, adding that the videos depict “illegal conduct by government employees.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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10 Children of Homeschool, Off-Grid Family Placed in Strangers’ Homes in 4 Counties

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Photo Credit: Off The Grid News

Photo Credit: Off The Grid News

By Off The Grid News Staff. The rural Kentucky parents at the center of a custody battle that has shocked the homeschool and off-grid communities are staying upbeat and hope to get their 10 children back soon, a family friend says.

“They’re being positive. They want to get their kids back. They’re not trying to be overly critical of the authorities,” family friend Pace Ellsworth told Off The Grid News.

The 10 children were seized Wednesday from the parents, Joe and Nicole Naugler, following an anonymous tip that apparently related to their style of off-grid living. The family is also part of the “unschooling” movement, a type of homeschooling.

A hearing is scheduled for Monday. As of now, officials have placed the children with four families in four different counties, and as of Friday morning, the parents had not spoken with them. The four families are families that Kentucky’s version of CPS chose – families the Nauglers don’t know.

The ease with which sheriff deputies were able to take the kids may have been the most shocking. (Read more from “10 Children of Homeschool, Off-Grid Family Placed in Strangers’ Homes in 4 Counties” HERE)

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Police Seize 10 Children From Homeschool Family Because They’re Off-Grid

By Off The Grid News Staff. An off-grid homeschool family of 12 in rural Kentucky was raided, the mother arrested, and the 10 children seized simply because the government disagrees with their lifestyle and their educational choices, family members and friends say.

Until Wednesday, Joe and Nicole Naugler lived with their 10 kids in a cabin on 26 acres in Breckinridge County, about an hour southwest of Louisville.

“They are an extremely happy family,” family friend Pace Ellsworth told Off The Grid News.

Acting on an anonymous tip about the family’s off-grid lifestyle, sheriff’s officers entered the property and home Wednesday, and even blocked the access road to the family property, the family says. Joe and eight of the children were away, but Nicole – who is five-months pregnant – was home with the two oldest kids. Sheriff deputies then seemingly allowed Nicole and the two children to drive away but they got only a short distance before deputies pulled them over and took the two children away from the mom, who was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. (She says the arrest took place after she did not passively allow deputies to take the children.) Nicole was able to contact her husband and have a brief conversation. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Social Security is in Worse Shape Than You Thought [+video]

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cThe Social Security Administration projects that its trust funds will be depleted by 2033—not an optimistic forecast. But it may be even bleaker than that.

New studies from Harvard and Dartmouth researchers find that the SSA’s actuarial forecasts have been consistently overstating the financial health of the program’s trust funds since 2000.

“These biases are getting bigger and they are substantial,” said Gary King, co-author of the studies and director of Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science. “[Social Security] is going to be insolvent before everyone thinks.”

The Social Security and Medicare Trustees’ 2014 report to Congress last year found trust fund reserves for both its combined retirement and disability programs will grow until 2019. Program costs are projected to exceed income in 2020 and the trust funds will be depleted by 2033 if Congress doesn’t act. Once the trust funds are drained, annual revenues from payroll tax would be projected to cover only three-quarters of scheduled Social Security benefits through 2088.

Researchers examined forecasts published in the annual trustees’ reports from 1978, when the reports began to consistently disclose projected financial indicators, until 2013. Then, they compared the forecasts the agency made on such variables as mortality and labor force participation rates to the actual observed data. Forecasts from trustees reports from 1978 to 2000 were roughly unbiased, researchers found. In that time, the administration made overestimates and underestimates, but the forecast errors appeared to be random in their direction. (Read more from “Social Security Is in Worse Shape Than You Thought” HERE)

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Judge Throws out Lawsuit From Redditor Who Found an FBI Tracking Device on His Car

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Photo Credit: Tech Dirt

Photo Credit: Tech Dirt

Back in 2010, Redditor Yasir Afifi found an unusual device on his car while taking it in for an oil change.

Other Redditors surmised it was some sort of tracking device — something that was confirmed a few days later when two SUVs full of cops and FBI agents showed up to reclaim it. While doing so, the FBI agent also asked the sort of probing questions that make the agency an indispensable part of our nation’s counterterrorism efforts . . .

They also said other, more unsettling things:

After returning the GPS device, defendant Kanaan made several comments to the plaintiff [Redditor Yasir Afifi] that indicated to the plaintiff that the FBI had knowledge of the plaintiff’s movements, including commenting on certain restaurants at which the plaintiff ate, a friend with whom he associated, and a new job at which he worked. At the end of the encounter, the plaintiff alleges that defendant Kanaan suggested to him that he was not a national security threat and that he was no longer of use to the FBI.

Apparently, part of the justification for deploying this tracking device was a comment one of Afifi’s friends had left at Reddit — a comment that skewers a lot of unproductive terrorism hysteria (and the agencies that thrive in this atmosphere). . . End result? A tracking device on Afifi’s car, and for something he didn’t even write. So, he sued the FBI and the DOJ for violating his First, Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. (Read more from “Judge Throws out Lawsuit From Redditor Who Found an FBI Tracking Device on His Car” HERE)

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Unearthed Audio: Hillary Made This Unbelievable Statement About Her Stance on Illegal Aliens

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download (11)Though you wouldn’t know it from her remarks earlier this week, Hillary Clinton was once “adamantly” against illegal immigration and was for erecting a border fence similar to one that protects Israel.

“I am adamantly against illegal immigrants,” then-Sen. Clinton said on the John Grambling radio show in Feb. 2003 . . .

“Come up to Westchester, go to Suffolk and Nassau counties,” Clinton continued. “Stand in the street corners in Brooklyn or the Bronx. You’re going to see loads of people waiting to get picked up to get yard work, and construction work, and domestic work.”

Those remarks are remnants of a distant political past for Clinton, who unveiled her new stance on immigration at a roundtable discussion at a Las Vegas high school on Tuesday. Clinton called for a path to citizenship for all and said that she would act unilaterally to extend amnesty to many more undocumented immigrants in the country . . .

In 2006, she told the New York Daily News that while she favored a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, she also wanted to build a fence in some areas along the southern border. (Read more from “Unearthed Audio: Hillary Made This Shocking Statement About Her Stance on Illegal Aliens” HERE)

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U.S. Official: Chinese Artificial Island in Disputed Waters Now Several Square Miles in Size

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Photo Credit: MIlitary Times

Photo Credit: MIlitary Times

China’s rapidly expanding campaign to construct artificial islands, potentially for military use or airstrips, now totals about 2,000 acres and could far outstrip that amount as the year goes on, a senior defense official said Friday.

The new estimate, disclosed for the first time, comes as the Pentagon released its annual report on China’s military power. The report warns that while Beijing’s island construction intent is unclear, five emerging outposts could be used for surveillance systems, harbors, an airfield and logistical support.

The wide-ranging report also details Chinese government-backed cyberattacks against the U.S. government to collect intelligence and steal high-tech data from defense programs to support China’s industry. And it warns that China now “boasts the most dynamic space program in the world today.”

The document also repeats persistent U.S. concerns about China’s growing capacity to project military power beyond its borders, with continued investments in new missiles, ships, and aircraft as well as cyber, space and electronic warfare.

For the first time, however, the report describes the “extensive” land reclamation at five outposts in the Spratly Islands, adding that at four of the sites the work has shifted to mainly development and construction. (Read more from “U.S. Official: Chinese Artificial Island Now Totals 2,000 Acres” HERE)

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ISIS Activity Prompts Threat Level Increase at Military Bases Throughout US

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140616-isis-iraq-jms-1914_dfd9d334d657162e5efe720e4f206e29Security conditions at U.S. military bases have been increased over growing concerns about terror threats, officials said Friday.

A U.S. official confirmed to CNN that U.S. military bases are now at “Force Protection Bravo,” which is defined by the Pentagon as an “increased and predictable threat of terrorism.” It is the third-highest threat level on a five-tier scale used by the Department of Defense.

U.S. military officials added Friday that the announcement, which comes in the aftermath of the shooting at a Texas cartoon contest featuring drawings of the Prophet Mohammed, was not the result of a specific threat but because the military had become concerned about several recent incidents.

The military became alarmed when one of the jihadists linked to the Garland attack tweeted the name and address of a U.S. military officer connected to the military’s Syrian rebel training program, a U.S. military official told CNN.

The tweet, first published on an account connected to British-born jihadist Junaid Hussain, was sent out a few days before the attack on the cartoon exhibit and appeared to encourage an attack on the address. (Read more from “ISIS Activity Prompts Threat Level Increase at Bases” HERE)

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China Preparing for Drone Warfare

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lijianUAVChina’s military plans to produce nearly 42,000 land-based and sea-based unmanned weapons and sensor platforms as part of its continuing, large-scale military buildup, the Pentagon’s annual report on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) disclosed Friday.

China currently operates several armed and unarmed drone aircraft and is developing long-range range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for both intelligence gathering and bombing attacks.

“The acquisition and development of longer-range UAVs will increase China’s ability to conduct long-range reconnaissance and strike operations,” the report said . . .

“China is working on a range of technologies to attempt to counter U.S. and other countries’ ballistic missile defense systems, including maneuverable reentry vehicles (MaRV), [multiple, independently targetable reentry vehicles], decoys, chaff, jamming, and thermal shielding,” the report, made public Friday, states . . .

The Chinese military, once a backward, ill-equipped force, is rapidly becoming a very sophisticated high-technology military organization that is focused on developing asymmetric warfare capabilities that will allow it to defeat the United States or other advanced militaries in a future conflict. (Read more from “China Preparing for Drone Warfare” HERE)

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What America Thinks: Americans Want Freedom to Choose Health Insurance

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healthcareVoters still haven’t warmed up to President Obama’s health care reform law for a variety of reasons, and one thing they’ve been consistently adamant about is personal choice when it comes to health insurance coverage. What does that mean? We decided to find out what America thinks.

The majority of voters have consistently rated their own health insurance coverage as good or excellent. But more than ever (39%) say they have had to change that coverage because of Obamacare, and they don’t appreciate one-size-fits-all, government-mandated changes in their health insurance. Sizable majorities believe individuals should have the right to choose between insurance plans that cost more and cover nearly all medical procedures and plans that cost less but cover only major medical procedures. They also say Americans should be able to choose between plans with higher deductibles and lower premiums and lower premiums with higher deductibles. Voters think, too, that individuals and employers should be allowed to buy health insurance plans across state lines rather than ones limited to their state.

The cost of health care cost has long been Americans’ number one health care concern, and 61% think more free market competition is the best way to reduce those costs. Half say the same of letting states compete to determine the most effective standards and guidelines rather than having the federal government mandate a single set of standards. (Read more from “Americans Want Freedom to Choose Health Insurance” HERE)

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