Oregon quits federal family planning program over new abortion restrictions…
August 27, 2019
In a letter sent Monday to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Oregon Health Authority said it would withdraw from the Title X family planning grant program rather than follow new rules banning grantees from referring women for abortions. The state has been a Title X grantee since 1970. Last year, Title X-funded clinics served more than 44,000 people in Oregon, state officials said in a statement. Oregon is the latest state to leave the program, after Washington and Vermont decided to give up Title X funds last week.
De Bozo Panel Wants To Eliminate ‘Racist’ Gifted Programs In New York Schools…
August 27, 2019
A panel appointed by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio to combat desegregation has recommended getting rid of public school programs for gifted and talented kids, as they are filled "mostly with white & Asian children"... Last year there were approximately 16,000 students enrolled in gifted classes - 75% of which were White and Asian, while Black and Hispanic enrollment in the same programs has fallen off a cliff over the past decade... Also recommended is that the city eliminate the standardized admissions exam for elementary school gifted programs - currently offered to prospective Kindergarten students in order to identify those with exceptional talents...
Ilhan Omar stole my husband, DC mom claims in divorce papers…
August 27, 2019
Dr. Beth Jordan Mynett says her cheating spouse, Tim Mynett, told her in April that he was having an affair with the Somali-born US representative and that he even made a “shocking declaration of love” for the Minnesota congresswoman before he ditched his wife, alleges the filing, submitted in DC Superior Court on Tuesday. The physician, 55, and her 38-year-old husband — who has worked for left-wing Democrats such as Omar and her Minnesota predecessor, Keith Ellison — have a 13-year-old son together.
Russia denies visa to another US lawmaker ahead of congressional trip…
August 27, 2019
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Tuesday that the Russian government denied him a visa — a day after Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., announced that Russia had denied him a visa request.
Ex-Google engineer charged with stealing trade secrets, selling them to Uber…
August 27, 2019
U.S. General: SpaceX has changed our ability to sense threats…
August 27, 2019
“Holy smokes. Talk about being able to move the ball,” Air Force Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy said of the May 23 launch by Space X of 60 small satellites at one time. “The space sensing layer is absolutely key,” O’Shaughnessy said of the challenge of defending the country and its forces against new weapons such as “hypersonic” missiles. “I don’t know how you can do it without the space sensing layer… taking advantage of what (low-Earth orbit) gives you.”
SpaceX says “Star Link” was the first step in “a next-generation satellite network capable of connecting the globe, especially reaching those who are not yet connected,
Track the Status of Trump’s Border Wall…
August 27, 2019
Harvard Freshman Deported After Immigration Agents Search Social Media and Find Friends Who oppose the US…
August 27, 2019
The decision to reject Ismail Ajjawi's entrance into the U.S. was first reported by the Harvard Crimson student newspaper, which received a statement from Ajjawi, a 17-year-old Palestinian resident of Lebanon. The teen said a U.S. official asked him about his religious practices and searched his laptop and cellphone for five hours before questioning him about his friends' social media activity. "After the 5 hours ended, she called me into a room, and she started screaming at me. She said that she found people posting political points of view that oppose the US on my friend[s] list"... "I responded that I have no business with such posts and that I didn't like, [s]hare or comment on them and told her that I shouldn't be held responsible for what others post," Ajjawi wrote, according to the Crimson. Eight hours after Ajjawi arrived at the airport, just a few miles from the campus where he expected to attend college, he was sent back to Lebanon.
First Chinese bishop ordained since controversial Vatican-China agreement last September…
August 27, 2019
Fr. Antonio Yao Shun was ordained bishop of Jining on Monday morning, according to AsiaNews. He was ordained a priest in 1991, and completed his seminary studies in Beijing before spending much of the 1990s studying in the United States and Jerusalem. It is unclear whether Yao was appointed by Pope Francis prior to last September's agreement. The agreement between the Vatican and China has not been made public, although it is thought to allow both the pope and Chinese officials to play a role in the selection of bishops.
Bill Dudley Shocker: Ex-NY Fed President Urges Fed’s Powell To Prevent Trump Re-election…
August 27, 2019
Here the narrative gets downright absurd, because while Dudley refers to the Fed as apolitical, underscoring that further in the next paragraph where he says that "I understand and support Fed officials’ desire to remain apolitical", he immediately refutes himself by admitting that the Fed has never been apolitical and in fact, it is the US central bank that, through its actions chooses who the US president is, to wit:
Central bank officials face a choice: enable the Trump administration to continue down a disastrous path of trade war escalation, or send a clear signal that if the administration does so, the president, not the Fed, will bear the risks — including the risk of losing the next election.
And the punchline: "There’s even an argument that the election itself falls within the Fed’s purview."
Translation: "there is even an argument", Dudley implies, that the Fed should crush the economy (arguably by hiking or not cutting rates) and start the next recession, thereby preventing Trump from getting re-elected.
Are Foreign “NGO’s” to blame for the Amazon fires?…
Anon reminds us about the time How Ecuador sold itself to China...
August 27, 2019
UPDATE: Amazon fire arsonists are being caught.
One group of Dutch or German NGO caught red handed and admitted they were paid.
Sonia @SoniavonHomrich please let us know what news you get from local honest media sources. https://t.co/mJpqsZC1In— Dr. Waheed Uddin (@drwaheeduddin) August 27, 2019
I found out from a Brazilian engineer that China has been building roads in Ecuador & Bolivia through Amazon rainforest.
Obviously, the plan is to connect this region of less exploited natural resources to the Pacific coast for easy & faster shipping of raw minerals to Shanghai. pic.twitter.com/3lJUiPdw1I— Dr. Waheed Uddin (@drwaheeduddin) August 27, 2019
Medieval Coin Hoard Unearthed in Scotland…
August 27, 2019
... amateur historian and metal detectorist Jarosław Musialkowski discovered a cache of 200 silver coins at a possible medieval military camp in Scotland’s east-central Lowlands. The site is associated with the First War of Scottish Independence and the Battle of Roslin, in which 8,000 Scottish troops, led by John Comyn, killed more than 20,000 invading English soldiers under the command of John Segrave in A.D. 1303. Many of the coins bear an image of the English king Edward I, who ruled from 1272 to 1307, while others are thought to have been minted in Ireland.
Fake News Can Create False Memories, especially if those stories align with their political beliefs, according to new research…
August 27, 2019
According to the study’s findings, nearly half of the participants reported a memory for at least one of the made-up events. Many recalled rich details about a fabricated news story...Participants who scored lower on the cognitive test were no more prone to forming false memories than those with higher scores, the researchers said. Low scorers were more likely to remember false stories that aligned with their opinions, they added... Many participants failed to reconsider their memory even after learning that some of the information could be fictitious. And several participants recounted details that the false news reports did not include, the researchers said... “People will act on their fake memories, and it is often hard to convince them that fake news is fake,” said Loftus, who participated in the research....
Dobbs & Fitton discuss whether former FBI official Andrew McCabe will be indicted…
August 27, 2019
Navy quietly ends climate change task force, reversing Obama initiative…
August 27, 2019
The closure was quiet and occurred in March, according to Greenwire, and "the group's tab on the Navy's energy, environment and climate change website was removed sometime between March and July." The purpose of the TFCC was to evaluate how climate change affects or could affect Naval and national security operations.
Federal judge blocks Missouri’s 8-week abortion ban…
August 27, 2019
U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs put a pause on the law as a legal challenge against it plays out in court. Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri filed the lawsuit, arguing that the law is unconstitutional and goes against the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. The law includes exceptions for medical emergencies, but not for rape or incest. If courts don't uphold the eight-week ban, the measure includes a series of less-restrictive bans ranging from 14 weeks up to 20 weeks. The policy also bans abortions based solely on race, sex or a diagnosis indicating the potential for Down syndrome.
Rollercoaster US foreign aid spending in four charts…
August 27, 2019
Here's two of the charts:
Tropical Storm Dorian spurs Puerto Rico to declare state of emergency…
Track using an interactive Air/Wind Map...
August 27, 2019
The National Hurricane Center said in its 8 a.m. ET update that Tropical Storm Dorian is located about 60 miles west-northwest of St. Lucia, moving west-northwest at 13 mph with maximum sustained at 50 mph. Hurricane watches have been posted for Puerto Rico and for the Dominican Republic from Isla Saona to Samaná, and tropical storm warnings have been issued for Martinique. The center said the storm is forecast to strengthen during the next 48 hours before passing near or south of the U.S. territory.
Creator Of Global-Warming’s Infamous “Hockey Stick” Chart Loses ‘Climate-Science’ Lawsuit…
August 27, 2019
Michael Mann disputes the notion that he lost (and more): "There have been some wildly untruthful claims about the recent dismissal of libel litigation against Tim Ball circulating on social media."
...technology.news has a rather different take than Mann, noting that further legal steps are on their way.:
Only possible outcome: Mann’s humiliation, defeat and likely criminal investigation in the U.S... Dr Tim Ball ... is expected to instruct his British Columbia attorneys to trigger mandatory punitive court sanctions, including a ruling that Mann did act with criminal intent when using public funds to commit climate data fraud... has astonished legal experts by refusing to comply with the court direction to hand over all his disputed graph’s data... Mann is now proven to have wilfully hidden his data...
Victims arrive at court for hearing to dismiss Jeffrey Epstein’s charges, those who say he abused them given chance to ‘be heard’…
August 27, 2019
The hearing will almost certainly end with the sex-trafficking charges against Epstein being dropped. But instead of issuing a simple written order, Berman asked prosecutors and defense lawyers to appear in court Tuesday, and said that they and those who say Epstein abused them can “be heard, if they wish to be.”
[...]
Federal prosecutors in New York have said they are still investigating those who might have conspired with Epstein, and it is possible other charges could be brought. Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey told the court Tuesday that charges against potential co-conspirators and civil forfeiture of Epstein’s assets are still possible, and that the government’s investigation will continue.