When Energy Dreams Fall Short

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

If the energy visions of past years had come true, throngs of Americans would be using switchgrass to fuel their cars and running their homes on electricity from nuclear fusion or carbon-capturing coal plants.

But reality has worked out differently.

Many of the nation’s most ambitious energy projects have fallen far short of their lofty goals, either because they were unrealistically optimistic, took too long develop or were abandoned as markets shifted. EPA offered a reminder of that reality this month, when it made sharp cuts in its production estimates for an advanced biofuel called cellulosic ethanol.

Some experts caution that struggling technologies can still strike gold, making it hard to judge when it’s too soon to stop investing in them.

“When do you know when to cut your losses?” asked Margot Anderson, executive director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s energy project. “When is a flop a flop?”

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State Dept. Corruption: Egyptian Gov’t Claims Evidence that U.S. Bribed Muslim Brotherhood Officials

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

A question apparently being raised in next week’s trial in Cairo of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leaders facing criminal charges is this: Was the Obama administration paying bribes as large as $850,000 a year to the Morsi government that were distributed by top ministerial level officials to Muslim Brotherhood leaders, with the direct involvement of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo?

WND is in possession of an official document from inside the Morsi government that lends credibility to a report published in Arabic by an Egyptian newspaper in Cairo that lists the charges brought by the current military-controlled government against Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leaders.

As seen above, WND has obtained official records from the deposed Morsi government in Egypt, with signatures, documenting monthly “gifts” paid to Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Egypt by the former prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani.

The document was seized from Egyptian government offices in Cairo when the Morsi government was deposed by the military July 3.

As translated by former PLO member and native Arabic-speaker Walid Shoebat, the monthly “gifts” listed in the document amount to bribes paid by the Morsi government to leading Muslim Brotherhood members in Egypt, including an annual payment of $750,000 to $850,000 in U.S. dollars.

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Obama: Assault Weapon Industry’s No. 1 Customer, Buys 600,000 AK-47 Magazines

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Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

There he goes again. President Obama’s anti-gun administration, which recently pushed legislation banning assault weapons and large ammo magazines, is proving again that it is the industry’s No. 1 customer.

On the heels of major purchases of AR-15-styled weapons for agencies like the IRS and millions of bullets used by assault-weapons and similar semi-automatic arms owned by federal forces, the Army has just announced that it is buying nearly 600,000 high capacity AK-47 Kalashnikov rifle magazines.

The gun is popular among collectors and target shooters, and was the weapon of choice used by this week’s Georgia school shooter. But while fans of the gun help keep small weapon accessory companies in business, the Army’s purchase is a major boost for an industry the president and his grassroots campaign, Organizing for Action, has spent the summer attacking.

It’s just one purchase in a string of AK-47 equipment buys from the Feds.

Army officials told Secrets that the 30-round magazines, which would be banned under Obama’s gun control proposals, are going to Afghanistan. But unlike the Pentagon’s controversial purchase of Russian helicopters for Afghan special forces, the Soviet-Russian-styled AK-47 magazines are likely to be purchased from an American firm.

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NSA Officers Spy on Love Interests

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

National Security Agency officers on several occasions have channeled their agency’s enormous eavesdropping power to spy on love interests, U.S. officials said.

The practice isn’t frequent — one official estimated a handful of cases in the last decade — but it’s common enough to garner its own spycraft label: LOVEINT.

Spy agencies often refer to their various types of intelligence collection with the suffix of “INT,” such as “SIGINT” for collecting signals intelligence, or communications; and “HUMINT” for human intelligence, or spying.

The “LOVEINT” examples constitute most episodes of willful misconduct by NSA employees, officials said.

In the wake of revelations last week that NSA had violated privacy rules on nearly 3,000 occasions in a one-year period, NSA Chief Compliance Officer John DeLong emphasized in a conference call with reporters last week that those errors were unintentional. He did say that there have been “a couple” of willful violations in the past decade. He said he didn’t have the exact figures at the moment.

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EPA Employee Stole $886K from the Agency

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epa employee stoleAn Environmental Protection Agency employee knowingly stole more than $886,000 from the agency, according to a criminal filing from the Department of Justice.

The alleged fraud occurred in the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation under the nose of former administrator Gina McCarthy, who now heads up the entire agency.

“There appears to be corruption to the umpteenth degree,” said Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter. “I think it’s appalling that Administrator McCarthy and former acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe could claim that sequester is depriving the agency of important resources when in fact their own employees are stealing from the government.”

EPA employee John Beale, who worked in the air office, stole $886,186 from the agency between 2000 and 2013. According to the criminal filing, Beale had stolen agency funds through salary, benefits, and certain bonuses that Beale “had not earned by providing employment services to the EPA.”

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Father Arrested after Punching Firefighter and Assaulting Nurse Who Were Trying to Save his Son’s Life

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Photo Credit: gwire

Photo Credit: gwire

A Dallas man faces felony assault charges after punching a firefighter and assaulting a nurse who were trying to save the life of his one-year-old son.

The son, whose name has not been released, suffered from an undisclosed medical condition and trouble breathing. The child, who lived on Preakness Lane in West Oak Cliff, was under 24-hour nursing care, police said.

At around 8:15 a.m. Saturday, the child began struggling with his breathing. The nurse on duty, Lisa Decatur, tried to help, police said, but was assaulted by the father. Decatur then called 911 and two firefighters responded to the scene.

One firefighter, Michael Barrett, attempted to intervene, but was punched in the face by the father and knocked unconscious. The other firefighter radioed for help and police soon responded. The father was then handcuffed, allowing rescuers to perform CPR on the child.

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Investigators Believe 8-Year-Old Intentionally Killed 90-Year-Old Woman (+video)

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Photo Credit: WAFB

Photo Credit: WAFB

East Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Office officials say they believe an 8-year-old intentionally pulled the trigger and killed an elderly woman Thursday evening right after playing ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’. Although they believe it was an intentional crime, according to Louisiana law the child will not be charged.

In what is now being called a homicide, the Sheriff’s Office says it happened at the Country Breeze mobile home park on LA 67 near Slaughter, LA just after 5 p.m.

Investigators said they found a woman with a gunshot wound to the head. She was pronounced dead at the scene. According to family members of the victim, her name was Marie Smothers. Smothers was 90 years old.

In a release from the Sheriff’s Office, it says although the child initially told investigators that he accidentally shot Smothers while playing with a firearm, the investigation has led them to believe the child intentionally shot her. Smothers was shot in the back of the head while she was in the living room watching television.

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DOJ Tries to Stop School-Choice for Poor Children in Failing Louisiana Public Schools

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The U.S. Justice Department is trying to stop the state from distributing school vouchers in any district that remains under a desegregation court order.

In papers filed Saturday in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, the Justice Department said Louisiana distributed vouchers in 2012-13 to nearly 600 public school students in districts that are still under such orders, and “many of those vouchers impeded the desegregation process.”

Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal called the department’s action “shameful” and said President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder “are trying to keep kids trapped in failing public schools against the wishes of their parents.”

“The Obama administration thinks parents should have to seek their approval any time parents want to send their child to a school of their choice,” Jindal said in a news release. “After generations of being denied a choice, parents finally can choose a school for their child, but now the federal government is stepping in to prevent parents from exercising this right. Shame on them. Parents should have the ability to decide where to send their child to school.”

Louisiana has 70 school districts, and 34 remain under desegregation court orders, many of which are decades old.

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Rush Limbaugh: Nobody listens to Obama

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Rush Limbaugh doesn’t think it’s his fault that Republicans aren’t listening to President Barack Obama; the way he sees it, no one is listening to the president anymore.

“I think that nobody is listening to Obama anymore. I don’t think he commands nearly the attention or the interest that he [did] and so what he’s doing is going back to the greatest hits,” the conservative radio host said on his Friday show. “And like if you’re in a radio station losing audience, you’ll play hits … stop the new age stuff and go play the hits. Well he’s going back and he’s recycled this idea that Republicans are not cooperating with him because they’re afraid of what I’m going to say about him.”

Limbaugh scoffed at the notion that the GOP walks on egg shells when around him, insisting that the conservative lawmakers weren’t listening to him.

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Union: EPA Carbon Regulations Costing Jobs

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A Pennsylvania local union officer argued last week that hundreds of families will lose their jobs due to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) anti-coal agenda, according to the Pittsburg Post-Gazzette.

Raymond C. Ventrone, business manager of the Boilermakers Local 154 union, explained that the coal industry has already invested millions of dollars in clean air technology. Even though coal usage tripled in the last 30 years, sulfur dioxide levels fell by 56 percent thanks to this new technology.

However, according to Ventrone, the EPA disregarded these innovations by the coal industry.

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