Building Explodes in Downtown Minneapolis

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Photo Credit: Jim Leinfelder / NBC News

Photo Credit: Jim Leinfelder / NBC News

Fourteen people were injured — six of them critically — in a building explosion in Minneapolis that sent flames shooting 20 feet into the air Wednesday morning, authorities said.

The ferocity of the blaze pushed back firefighters, who had to battle the flames from the outside with hoses. Not everyone was accounted for, officials said.

The three-story building on Cedar Ave. South housed a halal market and 10 apartments adjacent to a mosque, which was also damaged. Rescuers rushed there after a blast and fire were reported at 8:16 a.m.

“When crews arrived, there were victims already outside the structure. There was heavy fire on the second and third floors,” Fire Chief John Fuertel said.

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Bill Gates Told that His Charity Pledge is ‘Worthless’

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Bill Gates is the richest person in the world — but one retired New York hedge-fund mogul thought the software pioneer’s Giving Pledge was “practically worthless.”

Robert W. Wilson, a well-known philanthropist who had given away $600 million of his fortune as of 2013, abruptly turned aside Gate’s 2010 request that he sign the Giving Pledge.

The pledge pushes billionaires to give away a bulk of their fortune while they are alive, or in their will.

Wilson found especially problematic the pledge’s loophole that allowed signers to gift their wealth to a family-controlled foundation.

“And these foundations become, more often than not, bureaucracy-ridden sluggards,” Wilson wrote to Gates in a June 2010 e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by the website BuzzFeed.

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Legal Recreational Pot Industry Opens in Colorado

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Brennan Linsley

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Brennan Linsley

Crowds were serenaded by live music as they waited for the nation’s first legal recreational pot shops to open. They ate doughnuts and funnel cakes as a glass-blower made smoking pipes. Some tourists even rode around in a limo, eager to try weed but not so eager to be seen buying it.

And when the sales began, those who bought the drug emerged from the stores, receipt held high and carrying sealed shopping bags, to cheers.

“I’m going to frame the receipt when I go home, to remind myself of what might be possible: Legal everywhere,” said musician James Aaron Ramsey, 28, who did some time in jail for pot possession in Missouri and played folk tunes with his guitar for those in line.

Activists hope he’s right, and that the experiment in Colorado will prove to be a better alternative to the costly American-led drug war, produce the kind of revenue that state officials hope and save the government costs in locking up drug offenders.

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Obama’s Deputies Release Leftist Collaborator with Twin Towers Jihadis

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

President Barack Obama’s appointees won an early prison release for a progressive lawyer who collaborated with the Muslim jihadi leader of the 1993 attack on New York’s Twin Towers.

The 1993 attack failed to topple the building, but it did kill six Americans. The jihadi plotters had hoped the first tower would collapse and destroy the second tower in the process, killing all the Americans in both structures.

The failed attack was a model for Osama bin Laden’s successful atrocity in 2001, when his Muslim jihadis killed 3,000 New Yorkers.

The released left-wing lawyer, Lynne Stewart, 74, was sentenced in 2005 to a decade-long sentence for acting as a courier for her jihadi client, Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was jailed in 1995 for urging the Twin Towers attack.

Stewart’s allies said she should be released from prison because she’s suffering from cancer and is expected to die in 18 months. The 3,006 Americans who burned to death, were crushed by steel and concrete debris or leapt out of the Twin Towers during the September 11 attacks, were not available for comment.

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Freed Ailing Ex-Terror Trial Lawyer Arrives in NYC

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A dying former civil rights lawyer convicted in a terrorism case but released early from prison has arrived in New York City.

Lynne Stewart’s attorney says she landed Wednesday afternoon at LaGuardia Airport, where she was greeted by supporters and relatives.

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Syrian Electronic Army Says Hacked into Skype’s Social Media Accounts

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Photo Credit: Reuters/David Loh

Photo Credit: Reuters/David Loh

The Syrian Electronic Army, an amorphous hacker collective that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, claimed credit on Wednesday for hacking into the social media accounts of Internet calling service Skype.

The group also posted the contact information of Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Corp’s retiring chief executive, on its Twitter account along with the message, “You can thank Microsoft for monitoring your accounts/emails using this details. #SEA”

That message was an apparent reference to revelations last year by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that Skype, which is owned by Microsoft, was part of the NSA’s program to monitor communications through some of the biggest U.S. Internet companies.

A message posted on Skype’s official Twitter feed on Wednesday, apparently by the hacking group, read: “Don’t use Microsoft emails (hotmail, outlook), They are monitoring your accounts and selling the data to the governments. More details soon. #SEA”

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Illinois Law Grounds PETA Drones Meant to Harass Hunters

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Illinois passed a new state law that set back the efforts of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), making the use of drones to interfere with hunters and fishermen prohibited.

The law was created in response to PETA’s plan to employ drones called “air angels” to monitor outdoors enthusiasts engaged in hunting and fishing nationwide. Of course, the motivation for many outdoorsman is to get away from technology and be in harmony with nature.

But PETA has another plan for lovers of the wilderness. They want to spy on hunters as self appointed green police trying to trap them in violations. Surprisingly, these “hobbyists” are able to take home their personal drone for only $324.99.

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2014 California Laws Affect Transgenders, Smokers, Drunk Drivers

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Here are just a few blessed laws and regulations that will come into effect in 2014:

Transgender Rights: We will all sleep a little better at night knowing that students in grades K-12 who identify as transgender will be able to use the school bathrooms of their choosing as long as it is “consistent with their gender identity,” even if it is different than their gender at birth. Students will also be able to select whether they want to be on the boys team or the girls team based on their “gender identity.”

On Campus Smoking: Men wearing dresses to class with earrings in their noses is no problem, but don’t get caught inhaling a Camel walking to your next exam. All 10 University of California campuses will be smoke-free starting Jan. 1, 2014. The ban includes all tobacco products. Sorry, e-cigarettes count; they are also banned.

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Ignored By Jail Staff, Woman Allegedly Loses Arm After Rough Arrest

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Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

A woman has filed suit against the police department that injured her arm during her arrest and then ignored her increasingly poor medical state — eventually costing her an arm.

The woman — 35-year-old Amy Needham of Ross Township, Penn. — was arrested in April for skipping a preliminary hearing related to a disorderly conduct charge against her. Needham claimed that police surprised her while she was in the bathroom, tasered her and applied arms bars and wrist locks, according to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Police also used handcuffs that were “too tight,” according to Needham’s official complaint.

The lawsuit alleges that the rough treatment of her arms and wrists led her to develop “compartment syndrome,” a muscle condition that results in permanent nerve and tissue damage if untreated. Muscles affected by compartment syndrome wither and die unless surgery is administered, according to Raw Story.

Needham spent one week in Allegheny County Jail, during which she asked to see a doctor 16 times. Belatedly, she was taken to a hospital, where doctors amputated her arm at the elbow.

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Union Leader Tweet: Wishes Disabled Vet Would Have Died, Lost All Limbs

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Photo Credit: Free Patriot

Photo Credit: Free Patriot

Janet Vrotos is a hater with vitriol towards one particular group that is particularly nasty, unseemly and inappropriate. Three characteristics of Ms. Vrotos should be pointed out, all of which you may not find to be surprising, given the current administration’s apparent war on veterans and retirees.

She is a Democrat, a Union Leader and she lives in the liberal bastion of Massachusetts. While Democrats are the incessant promoters of tolerance in all things diverse or non-traditional, they sometimes fall short when the same considerations they demand of others are placed upon them.

In the case of Ms. Vrotos, the group that she has a particular disdain for is the same people who protect her right to be disgusting and to air such hateful and hurtful comments. Unfortunately, she also benefits from the sacrifice that disabled the veterans she targeted.

Her twitter comments directed towards Senior Airman Brian Kolfage were:

“You disabled veterans are worthless and all should have died, shame on you for fighting in a Republican war, you deserved to lose all of your limbs and I hope all veterans lose their benefits. I hope you die a miserable death you worthless fake hero. You and your family will be a burden on taxpayers for your entire life.”

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