US Fertility Rates Plunge To ‘All-Time Low’…
July 26, 2019
Something isn't right in the "greatest economy ever," as the general fertility rate continues to drop in the US, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)... Researchers used data from the National Vital Statistics System, discovered that the general fertility rate dropped 2% between 2017 and 2018 among females aged 15 to 44.
Overall fertility dipped to 59.1 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44. In non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black women, it fell 2% in 2018, while a 3% drop in rates was observed in Hispanic women. Teen pregnancy rates plunged to record lows, the report revealed. The rate dropped 7% from 2017 to 2018, falling from 18.8 per 1,000 to 17.4 per 1,000. Teen births in non-Hispanic black teenagers declined 4% in 2018, and 8% in non-Hispanic white and Hispanic teenagers.
Satellites are starting to watch your every move – There are real-time spies in the sky…
July 26, 2019
Satellite companies say they keep a person's data separate from any identifying characteristics, but Peter Martinez of the Secure World Foundation told MIT Technology Review that doesn't matter. Martinez said satellites don't need to recognize faces to identify someone if they can combine the images with data streams from sources like GPS, security cameras and social media posts.
Then there's the sheer volume of satellites overhead. Imaging company Planet Labs alone, the report said, has 140 satellites, which is enough to pass over every place on Earth once a day.
Meanwhile, satellite imagery is getting closer to a level that investors and businesses will want to exploit. The goal, Mapbox's Charlie Loyd told MIT Technology Review, is to make a "living map" of Earth...
Starting to? It's been going on for decades.
Louisiana declares state of emergency in response to ransomware attack…
July 26, 2019
This Wednesday, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency in response to ransomware attacks on three public school districts.
There's no word so far on which ransomware variant has hit the school districts or what the exact extent of damages is. Eddie Jones, principal of Florien High School (a school in one of the three affected districts), told KSLA News that his technology supervisor received an alert on his phone at 4am Sunday about unusually high bandwidth usage. Shortly afterward, investigators discovered ransomware on the school servers. Jones says "anything and everything housed solely on the School District's servers" was lost, including 17 years of his own personal documents...
Japan approves first human-animal embryo experiments. The research could eventually lead to new sources of organs for transplant, but ethical and technical hurdles need to be overcome…
July 26, 2019
Human–animal hybrid embryos have been made in countries such as the United States, but never brought to term. Although the country allows this kind of research, the National Institutes of Health has had a moratorium on funding such work since 2015.
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Hiromitsu Nakauchi, who leads teams at the University of Tokyo and Stanford University in California, plans to grow human cells in mouse and rat embryos and then transplant those embryos into surrogate animals.Until March, Japan explicitly forbid the growth of animal embryos containing human cells beyond 14 days or the transplant of such embryos into a surrogate uterus.
The strategy that he and other scientists are exploring is to create an animal embryo that lacks a gene necessary for the production of a certain organ, such as the pancreas, and then to inject human induced pluripotent stem cells into the animal embryo.
As the animal develops, it uses the human iPS cells to make the organ, which it cannot make with its own cells.
The hybrid embryos, grown for 28 days, contained very few human cells, and nothing resembling organs...
Buy American Wine…
July 26, 2019
France just put a digital tax on our great American technology companies. If anybody taxes them, it should be their home Country, the USA. We will announce a substantial reciprocal action on Macron’s foolishness shortly. I’ve always said American wine is better than French wine!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2019
Presidential Candidate Tulsi Gabbard Co-Sponsors “Audit The Fed” Bill…
July 26, 2019
"...without the massive borrowing and printing of money and controlling of interest rates - we wouldn't be able to sustain a permanent state of war."...
Watch: Armed Thieves Make Off With 1600 Lbs Of Gold and other metals valued at more than $40 million In Brazil Airport Heist…
July 26, 2019
Gold: Airport of Garulhos in San Paolo(Brazil).
Military command steals 752 KG of Gold destinated to USA and Switzerland (value 30 Million USD) from Brinks facilities. pic.twitter.com/rautSJ30Tu— Talal Salamé (@MediatikNews) July 26, 2019
Impeachment Investigation Is Underway, Judiciary Committee Says…
July 26, 2019
The House Judiciary Committee on Friday asked a federal judge to unseal grand jury secrets related to Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, using the court filing to declare that lawmakers have already in effect launched an impeachment investigation of President Trump.
In a legal maneuver that carries significant political overtones, the committee told a judge that it needs access to the grand jury evidence collected by Mr. Mueller as special counsel — such as witness testimony — because it is “investigating whether to recommend articles of impeachment” against the president.
Jeffrey Epstein’s Pilots Are Subpoenaed in Sex-Trafficking Investigation…
July 26, 2019
investigators seek to question the financier’s employees in the wake of his indictment on sex-trafficking charges. The grand jury subpoenas were served on the pilots earlier this month after Mr. Epstein’s arrest on July 6, some of the people said. A lawyer for one of the pilots confirmed the subpoena, but declined to provide further details.
T-Mobile and Sprint merger OK’d, creating big, new No. 3 wireless carrier…
July 26, 2019
The Department of Justice on Friday said it approved T-Mobile's $26.5 billion merger with Sprint, after the telecommunications companies agreed to divest enough telecom assets to allow TV provider Dish to become a wireless competitor... T-Mobile and Sprint will divest Sprint's prepaid cellular business, which includes Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Sprint prepaid, to Dish Network Corp., making the Colorado-based satellite television provider a major wireless competitor. T-Mobile and Sprint must also share at least 20,000 cell sites and hundreds of retail locations with Dish, per the terms of the proposed settlement.
Judge dismisses Covington student’s defamation suit against Washington Post…
July 26, 2019
The lawsuit, which was filed in February, sought $250 million in damages and accused the Post of practicing "a modern-day form of McCarthyism" by targeting Sandmann and "using its vast financial resources to enter the bully pulpit by publishing a series of false and defamatory print and online articles ... to smear a young boy who was in its view an acceptable casualty in their war against the president"...
In a 36-page ruling, U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman noted that the Post never mentioned Sandmann by name in its initial coverage of the incident, referring only to groups of "hat wearing teens." Bertelsman added that "the words used contain no reflection upon any particular individual" and thus could not be constituted as defamation. The judge also ruled that the newspaper used language that was "loose, figurative," and "rhetorical hyperbole" which is protected by the First Amendment.
Privacy group challenges $5B Facebook settlement…
July 26, 2019
A consumer privacy group has filed a challenge to Facebook’s $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, saying it is not “adequate, reasonable or appropriate” and lets the social media giant off the hook for years of violations. The Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center asked a federal district court in Washington D.C. on Friday to intervene in finalizing the settlement, which was approved 3-to-2 by the FTC.
EPIC says the deal, which also includes new privacy oversight and transparency requirements for Facebook, would extinguish more than 26,000 existing consumer complaints against Facebook that are pending at the FTC.
IRS Says It’s Sending Warning Letters to US Cryptocurrency Owners…
July 26, 2019
The Internal Revenue Service has begun sending letters to more than 10,000 cryptocurrency holders, warning they may have broken federal tax laws. The agency wasn’t specific about the possible violations it was reviewing, but those who hold digital currencies could be subject to a variety of taxes, especially on capital gains... An IRS spokesman declined to say how it learned about the targeted cryptocurrency holders and their transactions. One possible source is information provided to the agency by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. In mid-March of 2018, Coinbase provided data—under a federal-court order—on about 13,000 accounts as requested by the IRS. Coinbase turned over data on customers who bought, sold, sent or received digital currency worth $20,000 or more between 2013 and 2015.
Supreme Court says Trump can proceed with plan to spend military funds for border wall construction…
July 26, 2019
The Trump administration moved to reallocate the money earlier this year, after Congress denied the president’s full request for border wall construction funds. The Sierra Club and a coalition of border communities sued, arguing that President Trump had violated federal law.
Did you know that the Sierra Club helped create the Sunrise Movement? Sunrise Movement is the "young people" activist arm for AOC and co-wrote the Green New Deal.
Trump delivered remarks, announced asylum agreement with Guatemala and much more…
July 26, 2019
Erdogan: Turkey Could Cancel 100 Boeing Orders, Worth $10BN, Over Blocked F-35s…
July 26, 2019
"I said to (U.S. President Donald) Trump (at the G20 summit) in Osaka: even if Turkey is not buying the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system, the Patriot missile system, we are buying Boeing,” Erdogan was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
"We are good customers. But if our conflict continues, we will have to reconsider this issue,” he said...
Barr’s Russiagate Origin Probe Pivots To ‘Smoking Gun’ Tapes With Exculpatory Evidence…
July 26, 2019
A DOJ internal review of the Russia investigation is now focusing on transcripts of (not-so) covertly recorded conversations between former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos and 'at least one government source' during an overseas conversation in 2016. In particular, DOJ investigators are focusing on why certain exculpatory (or exonerating) evidence from the transcripts was not included in subsequent FBI surveillance warrant applications.
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Also under review by AG Barr and US Attorney John Durham of Connecticut is the actual start date of the original FBI investigation into the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the US election...Tarantino Billboards Hijacked in L.A. to Slam Epstein & “Pedowood”…
July 26, 2019
The artist behind the alterations goes by the name Sabo, and he says that the faux ads are meant to insult the entertainment industry for embracing Polanski, who plead guilty to sex with a minor four decades ago, and, to a lesser extent Epstein, who was arrested July 6 for sex trafficking of minors.... Beyond the billboard, there are ads at numerous bus stops, some on benches and others behind glass. Insiders say a street crew worked through the night to get the phony ads in place before the sun rose on Friday... “I felt they should all share a billboard to highlight a decades-old problem that has plagued Hollywood for decades: the abuse of children,” Sabo said.
South Dakota law requiring ‘In God We Trust’ to hang in all schools goes into effect
July 26, 2019
Schools across South Dakota will soon have the national motto, “In God We Trust,” displayed prominently in every school of the state’s 149 school districts. The law took effect this month, and mandates that all public schools must paint, stencil, hang, or display the motto in some way on their campuses.
Prosecutor says more people could be charged in R. Kelly case…
July 26, 2019
Prosecutor Angel Krull said a more far-ranging indictment could replace the charging document that led to Kelly’s arrest as he walked his dog in Chicago in mid-July. She offered no hints about possible new investigative targets... Krull also requested an order protecting evidence and limiting what lawyers can say publicly about it. Media and Kelly fans have harassed witnesses, making them hesitant about testifying and leading one to quit her job, Krull said... U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber, who is expected to rule on the request at a hearing Wednesday, said he has also received emails from Kelly supporters.