Horror in Mexico: US Mother Jailed For Drugs Found Under Her Seat on Public Bus (+video)

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Photo Credit: schlaegerA Goodyear couple traveled to Mexico last week to attend a family funeral…

The wife is in a Mexican jail right now accused of smuggling marijuana…

The couple, with seven children and two grandchildren between them, were on their way back to Arizona [on a Mexican bus] after attending a funeral for Yanira Maldonado’s aunt.

“They interviewed several of the other passengers and after about 2 1/2 hours they came to him [Gary] and said unfortunately some of these drugs were found under your seat and you’re under arrest,” Klippel said.

After arresting Gary Maldonado, Mexican officials said they’d made a mistake – that marijuana was actually found underneath Yanira Maldonado’s seat and an empty seat next to her.

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Massive Protests Against Homosexual Marriage in Paris

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Photo Credit: independent.co.ukEarlier about 400,000 people, including many children, had defied warnings of possible far-right violence and marched in peaceful protest against France’s newly enacted law permitting same-sex marriage. Twenty members of a xenophobic far-right group, “Génération Identitaire”, clambered on to the roof terrace of the headquarters of the Socialist party during the afternoon and unfurled a banner calling for the resignation of President François Hollande. They were rapidly dislodged and arrested by police.

Even before the violence broke out, the government said that there had been 96 arrests, mostly for possession of weapons.

The “marriage-for-all” law, allowing gay couples to marry in town halls and adopt children, passed its final legal and constitutional hurdles earlier this month.

The first officially recognised same-sex marriage in France will take place between two men in Montpellier on Wednesday.

The passage of the law, and warnings of possible violence, had been expected to dampen the ardour of protesters for what was billed as the “last demonstration” in a series of half a dozen large rallies that began in December. Police put the turn-out at 150,000. The organisers claimed 1,000,000. Other organisers estimated over 400,000, which seemed closest to the mark.

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Google Glass and Other Devices Promise to Erase What Little Privacy We Have Left

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Photo Credit: Pam Berry/The Boston GlobeLast year, after Google unveiled its wearable computer, I had a brief opportunity to test it and was awe-struck by the potential of this technology.

A few months later, at a work-related party, I saw several people wearing Glass, their cameras hovering above their eyes as we talked. I was startled by how much Glass invades people’s privacy, leaving them two choices: stare at a camera that is constantly staring back at them, or leave the room.

This is not just a Google issue. Other gadgets have plenty of privacy-invading potential. Memoto, a tiny, automatic camera that looks like a pin you can wear on a shirt, can snap two photos a minute and later upload it to an online service. The makers of the device boast that it comes with one year of free storage and call it “a searchable and shareable photographic memory.”

Apple is also working on wearable computing products, filing numerous patents for a “heads-up display” and camera. The company is also expected to release an iWatch later this year. And several other start-ups in Silicon Valley are building products that are designed to capture photos of people’s lives.

But what about people who don’t want to be recorded? Don’t they get a say?

Deal with it, wearable computer advocates say.

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A Tradition of Sacrifice, From Yorktown to Ramadi

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Photo Credit: Getty Images In 2006, my SEAL Task Unit deployed to Ramadi, Iraq. Among the rubble-pile buildings, bomb craters and burned-out hulks of vehicles, we experienced firsthand the harsh realities of war. We fought alongside the U.S. Army’s Ready First Brigade of the First Armored Division to take Ramadi back from a brutal and determined insurgency.

Combat is hard. It is alarmingly violent, ear-shattering, dirty, exhausting and ugly. It is marked by chaos and confusion and self-doubt. But combat also highlights the determination and sacrifice—and courage—of those who persevere. Through such times, an unbreakable bond is formed with brothers-in-arms.

Those bonds were tested greatly as our task unit suffered the first SEAL casualties of the Iraq War: Marc Lee and Mike Monsoor. Later, Ryan Job died of wounds received in combat. These men were three of the most talented and capable SEALs I have known. They were also loyal friends. Their loss is deeply personal to their families and to their SEAL teammates. As Marc’s and Ryan’s platoon commander, I bear the crushing burden of responsibility. I will forever wish that I could somehow take their place.

As a result, Memorial Day is deeply personal—to me, as it is to any veteran, to any military family. It is a time of mixed emotion: solemn reflection and mourning, honor and admiration for those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.

Let’s remember on Memorial Day—and every other day, for that matter—that America did not become a nation without a fight.

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Where’s the Global Warming? Upstate New York Gets 3 Feet of Snow

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Photo Credit: APA Memorial Day weekend storm has dropped three feet of snow on a New York ski mountain near the Vermont border.

Whiteface Mountain spokesman Jon Lundin says 36 inches of white powder has blanketed the nearly 5,000-foot tall mountain in the Adirondacks. That has forced the Olympic Regional Development Authority to close Whiteface Veteran’s Memorial Highway on the backside of the

Lundin says the snow began lightly falling Saturday and steadily dropped Sunday, finishing in the evening.

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Japanese Mayor Apologizes for Saying US Troops Should Visit Adult Businesses to Reduce Rapes

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Photo Credit: APA Japanese mayor apologized Monday for saying earlier that U.S. troops should patronize legal adult entertainment businesses as a way to reduce rapes and other assaults.

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, who is also the co-head of an emerging nationalistic party, said his remarks two weeks ago rose from a “sense of crisis” about cases of sexual assaults by U.S. military personnel on Japanese civilians in Okinawa, where a large number of U.S. troops are based.

“I understand that my remark could be construed as an insult to the U.S. forces and to the American people” and was inappropriate, he said at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Tokyo.

Hashimoto had created another uproar when he said that Japan’s wartime practice of forcing Asian women, mostly from South Korea and China, to work in front-line brothels was necessary to maintain discipline and provide relaxation for soldiers.

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Do You Believe? Holy Image Appears Behind Child Battling Leukemia (+video)

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Photo Credit: Potter FamilyBeliever or not, the image behind Erin Potter, a Kirtland girl battling leukemia, is stunning. It certainly stunned her mom.

“My reaction immediately, it’s Mary, they hear us, she’s there,” Jen Potter said.

The picture of Erin, running with sparklers, was taken in her backyard by a friend just after the family learned that Erin’s cancer was back, for the third time, and she was facing a second bone marrow transplant.

“I didn’t necessarily see it as a sign that Erin is fine and is going to walk out of this, but it’s a sign that we’re watching over her,” Jen added.

KPTV – FOX 12

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Tea Party Gets a Bump After Being Targeted by IRS

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Photo Credit: APThe Tea Party movement is showing signs of a resurgence following the revelation that the IRS targeted groups and other politically conservative organizations for the past several years.

A recent poll shows Americans have a more favorable opinion of the less-government, anti-tax groups. And one of the biggest groups in the grassroots movement told FoxNews.com this weekend that fundraising and donations have increased since news of the IRS targeting broke earlier this month.

However, one of the biggest remaining questions is whether the Tea Party can take the momentum in the 2014 elections.

The movement started in 2009 as a reaction to the federal government’s multibillion-dollar bank bailouts in the recession and played a major role in the 2010 midterm elections by backing conservative candidates who helped Republicans take control of the House. However, critics during the 2012 election cycle repeatedly argued the movement had become less relevant.

“We’re definitely seeing a spike in both interest and contributions,” Sal Russo, co-founder of the California-based Tea Party Express, told Fox on Saturday.

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Rand Paul: Obama ‘Losing Moral Authority’

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Photo Credit: Getty Images President Barack Obama is in danger of losing his moral authority to lead the nation, Rep. Rand Paul, R-Ky., says.

Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Paul said the three controversies currently swirling around the administration weaken his leadership ability.

“Nobody questions his legal authority, but I think he’s really losing the moral authority,” Paul said. “I don’t care whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, nobody likes to see the opposite party punishing you for your political beliefs.”

Paul was referring to IRS agents targeting conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status prior the previous election cycle. Some have charged that agents wanted to suppress Republican voter turnout, though administration officials say the agents simply used bad judgment.

Asked whether he was aware of anyone at the IRS breaking the law, Paul responded that he didn’t know. But he noted that Lois Lerner, the head of tax-exempt organizations at the agency, took her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself when asked to testify before Congress last week.

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Boston Community Cancels Veteran’s Day Parade Because of Lack of Veterans (+video)

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Photo Credit: mrsdkrebsThis Sunday, the streets of Beverly will look just like they always do. And that’s the problem, some veterans say. The city has cancelled its annual Memorial Day parade for what’s believed to be the first time since the end of the Civil War.

Many veterans who were gathered at the Herman A. Spear American Legion Post on Friday night are upset by the decision.

“It’s not right to me,” says Ron Innocenti. He is a Vietnam veteran who has not only marched in the city’s Memorial Day parade in the past, he says he has also been its grand marshal.

He hates to cancel because of the message it sends to men and women serving now.

“It’s a slap in the face to them that we’re not doing it,” he says. “But on the other hand, I can see why we’re not doing it because of the age of the veterans we have now.”

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