Photo Credit: Fox NewsA large swath of a town in eastern Quebec was destroyed Saturday after a train carrying crude oil derailed, sparking several explosions forcing the evacuation of up to 1,000 people, killing at least one.
Several people were reported missing and officials reported one death in the town of Lac-Megantic (Lack-MAH-Gan-Tic), about 155 miles east of Montreal.
The explosions ignited a blaze that sent flames shooting into the sky, and billowing smoke could be seen from several miles (kilometers) away hours after the derailment. Some of the train’s 73 cars exploded and the fire spread to a number of homes in the town of 6,000 people.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-07 02:14:482016-04-11 11:19:50Train Carrying Crude Derails, Destroys Large Part of Canadian Town (+video)
Photo Credit: APThe grieving parents of a 19-year-old Idaho woman who died serving her country thousands of miles from home say the U.S. Air Force won’t give them information about the circumstances of her death.
Airman 1st Class Kelsey Sue Anderson of Orofino died June 9, 2011, at Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean 3,300 miles west of Hawaii. The military has reported she committed suicide.
But Chris and Adelia Sue Anderson, her parents, filed a lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court to force the Air Force to respond to their Freedom of Information Act request seeking more information about how their daughter died.
The Andersons say their daughter, an avid soccer player and horseback rider who worked in her hometown’s flower shop before joining the military, was unhappy with her job as a security guard on Guam but neither distraught nor depressed in their final contacts days before her death. The arrival of an Air Force colonel at their home, accompanied by local sheriff’s officers from Clearwater County, to relay the terrible news was a bolt from the blue, they say.
“We just want to know what happened,” said Chris Anderson, who with his wife runs a hunting outfitting business in northcentral Idaho’s forests, in an interview Wednesday. “We don’t care if it’s good or bad, we just want closure so we can get on with our lives. It’s been two years with no answers.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-07 02:14:172016-04-11 11:19:50Grieving Parents Sue Air Force for Answers in Daughter’s Death
Photo Credit: YouTubeA brand-new ad campaign that’s sure to raise some eyebrows features a young Australian couple being informed their unborn baby is going to be a lesbian.
In the YouTube video, a pregnant woman and her mate are at an ultrasound examination, viewing their baby in the womb on an electronic screen.
“Well, everything seems to be coming along fine,” the ultrasound technician tells the couple. “Now, would you like to know what you’re having?”
“We would,” the woman says.
“You’re having a lesbian,” the technician tells the couple.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-07 02:13:462016-04-11 11:19:50Congratulations! You’re Having a Lesbian (+video)
Photo Credit: Justin SullivanGun stores around the country have had difficulty keeping up with demand for ammunition in recent months. Fears of government tightening of gun and ammunition controls have meant that retailers, from Wal-Mart to mom-and-pop gun shops, haven’t been able to keep bullets on the shelves.
Cliff Poser’s gun shop, Cliff’s Guns, Safes and Reloading in Boise, Idaho, is one of them. Business has been so crazy lately that he has to keep a special stash of ammunition, just so customers who buy guns from him can also buy bullets.
Poser says the current ammunition shortage is the worst that he’s seen. “I’ve been doing the business for 33 years, and, I mean, as big as we’ve gotten, we still can’t take care of all the people that are coming in.”
Shopper Robert Nicholson says buying cheap ammunition for target practice on the Internet used to be easy. “You know, buy a thousand-round steel case, .223 [caliber] for 150 bucks,” he says. “Now, you can’t touch it for less than $400.”
So Nicholson, like thousands of other shooters, is going a different route. He’s making more of the bullets he shoots. Shop owner Poser says the scarcity of ready-made bullets has frustrated shooters to the point they’re spending between $200 and $1,000 to get into the hobby known as “reloading.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-07 02:11:082016-04-11 11:19:50With Bullets Scarce, More Shooters Make Their Own
Photo Credit: Shutterstock If you’ve been thinking about killing yourself, your social media might give you away. An initiative called the Durkheim Project will use artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to identify common words and phrases among those who might be contemplating suicide.
The program, which launched on July 2, currently targets only veterans, who have disproportionately high suicide rates. Veterans opt into the Durkheim Project, which installs an app on computers, iOS and Android devices. These apps keep track of what users post and upload it to a medical database. A medical AI monitors the data in real-time, picking out patterns that might lead to self-harm.
The Durkheim Project app monitors content from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, in addition to storing information from a user’s mobile device. A database at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth University will keep track of users’ locations and text messages, and will not share any information with third parties. Additionally, the system will be guarded by a firewall to ward off would-be hackers.
“The study we’ve begun with our research partners will build a rich knowledge base that eventually could enable timely interventions by mental health professionals,” said Chris Poulin, principal investigator on the project, in a statement. “Facebook’s capability for outreach is unparalleled.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-07 02:10:202016-04-11 11:19:51Facebook Usage May be Able to Predict Risk of Suicide
Photo Credit: Todd Keith/GettyThese are among the boldest of claims from a Florida pastor who has launched a campaign to find 1 million men willing to do what many may find unnecessary, if not unthinkable: quit porn. Cold turkey. Forever.
Baptist Pastor Jay Dennis of the Church of the Mall in Lakeland, Florida, never thought he’d find himself taking sexual addiction classes, he told The Daily Beast. But staff members were approaching him with concerns about pornography in the church: wives who’d caught their husbands, moms worried about their sons. He knew it would be an awkward conversation, taking on pornography as a mission, and he knew he’d face critics who would tell him the church is no place to deal with sexual issues, he said. “But my heart believed this is the very place to deal with it.”
So Dennis launched a glossy website, Join 1 Million Men, where he asks men around the world to add their first names to a wall, pledging to say goodbye to smut. There’s an iPhone app with related scripture, tips, and tools. Videos about how to “destroy your porn stashes.” Testimonials from men who’ve found themselves in the clutches of Satan’s ubiquitous tools. And some pretty jarring claims, like this one:
“I believe as many as 80 percent of men in the church are struggling with viewing pornography,” Dennis says in one video, adding that drastic action may be necessary to truly rid yourself of it. “You may even need to destroy your present computer. I realize that can be an expensive move, but it may be necessary if you are serious about living porn-free.”
A brief on Dennis’s quest in the Orlando Sentinel elicited some predictable mocking: “They can pry it from my cold dead hands” and “Supposedly he was going to ask them to take an oath, and raise their right hand, but that became a sticky issue.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2013-07-07 02:08:372016-04-11 11:19:51Pastor Calls on Parishioners to Boycott Porn, Claims 80% of Church Views Smut
Photo Credit: APThe remains of a firefighter killed in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks at the World Trade Center have been identified, the New York City Medical Examiner’s office said Friday.
Lt. Jeffrey P. Walz, 37, was identified after authorities retested remains that were recovered in the months following the attack.
Of the 2,753 people killed in the attack, more than 1,100 people have not had remains identified…
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-07 00:25:062016-04-11 11:19:5112 Years Later: Remains of Firefighter Killed in 9/11 Attacks Identified
Photo Credit: U.S. AFRICA COMMAND/FlickrMarine Corps Col. George Bristol was in a key position in the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) chain of command the night of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. As such, he’s high on the list of people that some Republican members of Congress want to interview. But they don’t know where he is and the Pentagon isn’t telling.
Pentagon spokesman Major Robert Firman told CBS News that the Department of Defense “cannot compel retired members to testify before Congress.”
“They say he’s retired and they can’t reach out to him,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told CBS News. “That’s hogwash.”
Bristol, a martial arts master, was commander of Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trans Sahara based in Stuttgart, Germany until he retired last March. In an article in Stars and Stripes, Bristol is quoted at his retirement ceremony as telling his troops that “an evil” has descended on Africa, referring to Islamic militant groups. “It is on us to stomp it out.”
Members of Congress in both the House and Senate, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have asked the Pentagon for assistance in locating Bristol so that they can question him about events the night of the terrorist attacks in Benghazi. But those efforts have come up empty.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-06 01:52:302016-04-11 11:19:51Where is the Marine Colonel Who May be Key to Understanding Benghazi?
Yes, after vigorously denying reports that Kerry was on his private yacht during the uprising Wednesday, the State Department has issued a somewhat sheepish retraction.
“While he was briefly on his boat on Wednesday, Secretary Kerry worked around the clock all day including participating in the president’s meeting with his national security council,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
The State Department was forced to admit Kerry was on his boat after the following photos were released by the Boston Herald:
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-06 01:48:512016-04-11 11:19:51State Department Admits it Lied: Yes, John Kerry Actually was on his Yacht During the Egyptian Coup
Photo Credit: Fox NewsBy Fox News. The mothers of both Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman testified Friday it was their own son’s voice calling for help on a taped 911 call in a dramatic day of testimony that saw the prosecution rest and the defense begin its case in Zimmerman’s murder trial.
After Judge Debra Nelson ruled against a defense motion for acquittal late Friday afternoon, the prosecution announced it was resting and the defense began by calling Zimmerman’s mother, Gladys.
She testified the voice heard screaming for help on the 911 call was her son’s and she knew it was him “because he’s my son.” The recording was made during a fight between Zimmerman and Martin minutes before the neighborhood watch volunteer shot the teen.
Zimmerman’s uncle, Jorge Meza, a deputy with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, then testified that he overheard the 911 screams while watching television and, ” It was Jorge screaming for his life.”
Photo Credit: APME Admits Changing Opinion on Martin’s Death
By MIKE SCHNEIDER and KYLE HIGHTOWER. After the mother and brother testified, the doctor who performed an autopsy on Martin took the witness stand. Associate Medical Examiner Shiping Bao started describing Martin as being in pain and suffering after he was shot, but defense attorneys objected. The judge sustained the objection, and Bao was directed away from that line of questioning.
He later estimated that Martin lived from one to 10 minutes after he was shot, and the bullet went from the front to the back of the teen’s chest, piercing his heart.
“There was no chance he could survive,” Bao said.
Under cross examination, defense attorney Don West questioned why Martin’s hands weren’t covered in order to preserve evidence on his fingers and why it took three hours to remove the body from the scene. West and Bao talked over each other at several points, requiring the judge to tell everyone to speak one at a time.
With jurors out of the courtroom, Bao acknowledge he had changed his opinion in recent weeks on two matters related to the teen’s death — how long Martin was alive after being shot and the effect of marijuana detected in Martin’s body at the time of his death. Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-06 01:46:462016-04-11 11:19:52Mothers of Both Martin, Zimmerman Testify They Heard Their Own Son Screaming on 911 Tape (+videos)
