Tag Archives: United States

Tropical Storm Danny Expected to Reach Hurricane Status

Tropical Storm Danny, located far out over the Atlantic, is likely to become a hurricane.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) say the storm is maintaining winds of 50 m.p.h. and models are showing the storm strengthening into hurricane status within the next few days.

The storm’s track could take it into Puerto Rico.  If the storm continues to strengthen, it could strike Cuba as early as Wednesday.  The models say it’s too early to determine if the storm could impact the United States.

If the storm reaches hurricane status, it would be the first named storm of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season to reach that level.

The NHC said the storm is being driven west by a “subtropical ridge of high pressure” and that the conditions around the storm are beneficial to increasing strength.

The Atlantic hurricane season lasts until November 30th.

Second Yosemite Tourist Infected with Plague

The second tourist within a month to Yosemite National Park has been found to have contracted the plague.

The California Department of Public Health confirmed Tuesday a “presumptive positive” for plague in a patient who visited Yosemite and the Sierra National Forest in August.  The Centers for Disease Control is now testing the patient, who’s demographic information is not being released to the press.

In late July, a child from Los Angeles County became infected with the plague after camping with their family at Crane Flat Campground in Yosemite National Park.  The child is still hospitalized but recovering from the infection.

“Although the presence of plague has been confirmed in wild rodents over the past two weeks at Crane Flat and Tuolumne Meadows campgrounds in Yosemite, the risk to human health remains low,” the state Department of Public Health said in a statement. “Action to protect human and wildlife health by closing and treating campgrounds was taken out of an abundance of caution.”

Health officials say that campers should never feed squirrels and other small animals.  They also said for campers to avoid making camp near rodent burrows and to wear long pants and use bug repellant to keep the fleas that carry the disease at bay.

The plague has killed two people so far this year in Colorado.  The Centers for Disease Control says there is an average of seven human plague cases per year in the United States.

Syrian Government Bombs Civilians in Douma

The Syrian government has killed over 100 civilians in a series of airstrikes on a marketplace and other buildings in the Damascus suburb of Douma.

Syrian warplanes attacked the suburb Sunday and Monday with Sunday’s initial attack on a market killing over 80 civilians including women and children.

“In some places there was not enough capabilities to transfer the victims. It was very painful to see dead human bodies just left on the sidewalk,” said Abdullah al-Shami, a media activist, told CNN. “Scores of injured were bleeding while waiting their turn to get treatment.”

“It was really difficult to identify the bodies of the martyrs. Some of them were burned to the bone, so we couldn’t add them to the documented list,” said a 28-year-old spokesman of the Syrian Civil Defense Force, who declined to give his real name to Reuters for security reasons.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Syrian troops waited after the initial attack for rescue personnel to arrive on the scenes of the bombings and then struck the same areas with a second volley.

The United Nations issued a swift condemnation of the attacks, saying that the “attacks on civilians are unlawful, unacceptable and must stop”.

The White House also issued a strong condemnation of the actions of the Syrian government.

“This latest tragedy is just another reminder of the inhumane acts perpetrated daily by the Asad regime against the Syrian people,” National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.  “The regime is responsible for killing thousands of innocent Syrian civilians and destroying entire towns and cities, historical sites, schools, mosques, markets, and hospitals.  These abhorrent actions underscore that the Asad regime has lost legitimacy and that the international community must do more to enable a genuine political transition.”

(Misspellings of the Syrian regime listed in the quote above were done purposefully, as that is how the White House spells the regime’s name.)

Obama Administration Warns China Over Covert Agents in U.S.

The Obama administration has sent a harsh warning to Chinese officials about undercover Chinese intelligence agents coming to the U.S. and seeking out fugitives or immigrants.

The agents are working to bring home those the Communist government accuse of “corruption” after they gained asylum or resident status in the United States.

The declaration from the administration comes after officials discovered that Chinese hacking groups were infiltrating U.S. email databases.

Federal officials say they have found the undercover Chinese agents in the country illegally under tourist or trade visas.  These agents are using strong-arm tactics to force those the Communist government considers an enemy to return to China to be prosecuted.

Tactics include threats against family members still in China.

“Our principle is thus: Whether or not there is an agreement [with local law enforcement] in place, as long as there is information that there is a criminal suspect, we will chase them over there, we will take our work to them, anywhere,” Liu Dong, a director of Operation Fox Hunt, told the New York Times.

China and the United States do not have an extradition treaty, so the U.S. cannot force a Chinese national to return although in the past U.S. officials have returned suspected Chinese criminals.

ISIS “Mein Kampf” Document Discovered

Intelligence officials are calling a document found in Pakistan as the ISIS version of “Mein Kampf” that blames Israel for the rise of the terrorist group and calls President Obama “the mule of the Jews.”

“It reads like the caliphate’s own Mein Kampf,” said a U.S. intelligence official, who reviewed the document. “While the world is watching videos of beheadings and crucifixions in Iraq and Syria the Islamic State is moving into North Africa the Middle East, and now we see it has a strategy in South Asia. It’s a magician’s trick, watch this hand and you’ll never see what the other is doing.”

The document, “A Brief History of the Islamic State Caliphate (ISC), The Caliphate According to the Prophet,” is aimed to recruit Pakistani and Afghani Taliban members into ISIS.  The document provides the group’s version of their history along with various battle plans that would make their leader ruler of the world.

“Accept the fact that this caliphate will survive and prosper until it takes over the entire world and beheads every last person that rebels against Allah,” it proclaims. “This is the bitter truth, swallow it.”

Retired Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn called the document “a red flag to which we must pay attention.”

“If I were in their shoes, I would say, ‘We are winning, we are achieving our objectives,’” Flynn said. “They have demonstrated an incredible level of resiliency and they will not be defeated by military means alone.”

Pentagon Believes ISIS Used Chemical Weapons

Pentagon officials have confirmed that they are investigating reports of Islamic terrorist group ISIS using chemical weapons against Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq.

The officials were quick to emphasize that it was likely a small amount and in a weak concentration, but it still would confirm the terrorists have found at least one cache of Syrian chemical weapons.

A senior U.S. official said that after a barrage fired at a Peshmerga unit last week, there were  “wounds consistent with a blister-producing agent.”

“We continue to monitor these reports closely, and would further stress that any use of chemicals or biological material as a weapon is completely inconsistent with international standards and norms regarding such capabilities,” Alistair Baskey, spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council, said in a statement.

Peshmerga Brig. Gen. Sirwan Barzani told CNN they suspect the agent used was mustard gas because some troops also suffered breathing difficulties beyond the skin blistering.

ISIS had been previously accused by monitoring groups of using chlorine based chemical weapons against Kurdish forces.

“We continue to take these and all allegations of chemical weapons use very seriously. As in previous instances of alleged ISIL use of chemicals as weapons, we are aware of the reports and are seeking additional information. We continue to monitor these reports closely, and would further stress that use of any chemicals or biological material as a weapon is completely inconsistent with international standards and norms regarding such capabilities,” Blake Narendra, a spokesperson for the State Department’s Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Bureau, told reporters.

Mustard gas is only deadly in large quantities but can cause painful burns and blisters that could render an enemy immobile from pain.

Food Banks Struggling to Keep Up with Demand

Food banks across the country are facing an increase in families in need, forcing some charities to reduce the amount of food that can be given to each family.

Feeding America, America’s biggest food bank network, says that they will give away around 4 billion pounds of food this year, more than double the amount they provided to people in need a decade ago.

“We get lines of people every day, starting at 6:30 in the morning,” said Sheila Moore, who oversees food distribution at The Storehouse, Albuquerque, New Mexico’s largest food pantry.

Economists say the increased demand is surprising because of the increase in employment figures but many of the people who found jobs are only working part-time or for low wages, and are unable to feed their families with the costs of housing.  Many others who have struggled to find jobs have stopped looking for work.

“I know what people go through,” Peggy Bragg, 56, of Des Moines said. “You have to choose between food and bills.”  Bragg has been out of work for months.

A Fort Smith, Arkansas food bank does monthly food giveaways at a local park and draws around 1,000 families.

“When people are willing to stand in 100 degree weather for hours, that tells you something,” said Ken Kupchick, the food bank’s marketing director.

New Planned Parenthood Video Reports Transactions Took Place without Parental Consent

A new undercover video released by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) shows that Planned Parenthood has been selling the parts of aborted babies without the permission of the mother, a violation of federal law.

“If there was a higher gestation and the technicians needed it, there were times they would just take what they want,” said Holly O’Donnell, the ex-procurement tech for StemExpress who is featured in the 10-minute release.

“And these mothers don’t know. And there’s no way they would know.”

CMP has been the target of two federal judges who have tried to stop the group from releasing videos.  However, the restraining order that bars release of footage involving StemExpress, a body parts sales company, only bars footage of three executives of the company at a restaurant in May.  The video released Wednesday contains a former StemExpress employee not taken at the May meeting.

O’Donnell said in the video that Planned Parenthood looks for opportunities to harvest baby parts.

“They give you a sheet, and it’s everybody for that day, who’s coming in for an ultrasound, who’s coming in for an abortion, medical or a late-term abortion,” O’Donnell said.  “Pregnancy tests are potential pregnancies, therefore potential specimens. So it’s just taking advantage of the opportunities.”

O’Donnell said one time she was being ordered to get consent from a woman who was crying and throwing up as a result of the drugs used in her abortion.

“The women I worked for were… cold. They don’t care,” O’Donnell recalled. “They just wanted their money. They didn’t care that a girl was throwing up in the trash can, and crying… and even, there were times to when the patients would ask me, they would come in and be crying and say, ‘Should I do this? Should I be doing this?’”

The woman in the video, Holly O’Donnell, says that she is now pro-life after experiencing the situations at Planned Parenthood.

“Experiences like Holly O’Donnell’s show that Planned Parenthood’s abortion and baby parts business is not a safe place where vulnerable women can be cared for, but a harvesting ground for saleable human ‘product.’ Taxpayer subsidies to Planned Parenthood’s barbaric abortion business should be revoked immediately, and law enforcement and other elected officials must act decisively to determine the full extent of Planned Parenthood’s offensive practices and hold them accountable to the law,” said CMP project lead David Daleiden.

StemExpress released a statement in July, following Daleiden’s interview, saying that his accusations are false.

“We coordinate with clinics and hospitals to obtain human tissue and blood — specimens that would be otherwise be disposed of — and provide them to biotechnology and academic institutions performing research to find a cure,” said Beau Phillips, spokesman for the group. “The nation’s and the world’s greatest research facilities need a reliable source of healthy human-derived blood, tissue and cellular specimens to perform their studies. As a point of clarification, StemExpress has never requested nor received an intact fetus.”

Planned Parenthood continually denies that they have broken any laws.

“The video released today shows someone who has never worked for Planned Parenthood making false and outrageous claims, without any evidence to back them up,” said Eric Ferrero, Vice President of Communication, Planned Parenthood Federation of America in a statement out Wednesday. “Planned Parenthood follows all laws — period.”

Intelligence Officials Admit China Has Hacked Obama Administration Emails Since 2010

Senior U.S. Intelligence officials are confirming that China has been hacking the emails of Obama Administration officials since 2010.

The National Security Agency (NSA) has confirmed the intrusions were first detected in April 2010 and that the hacking of various accounts is still taking place.  The NSA official said that all top national security and trade officials have been targeted by the attack including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead.

Gmail accounts were specifically mentioned by the NSA official but other email providers were also confirmed to have violated by the attack.

NBC reported the hacks were first code-named “Dancing Panda” and then “Legion Amethyst.”

“There’s no effective defense against these attacks and, as we’ve seen, there’s also no effective deterrence,” geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer told Business Insider in June.

“China isn’t trying to engage in ‘integrity’ attacks against the US — they don’t want to destroy American institutions and architecture as, after all, they’re hugely invested in American economic success,” he added.

EPA Releases 3 Million Gallons of Toxic Sludge into Southern Colorado River

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is coming under fire after first releasing a toxic plume of contaminated mine water into the Animas River and then misleading the public about the size of the spill.

The EPA initially told the public last week the amount of toxic waste, which had turned the Animas River orange, was one million gallons.   The EPA admitted Sunday the spill was actually closer to three million gallons.

On Sunday, Shaun McGrath of the EPA told reporters in a teleconference that the mine is still spilling 500 gallons of toxic water a minute but that it’s being contained in four lakes near the site of the spill where it can be treated by EPA officials.

EPA tests showed the level of arsenic in the river topped out at 300 times the normal level and lead reached 3,500 times the normal level.  

“Yes, those numbers are high and they seem scary,” Deborah McKean, chief of the EPA Region 8 Toxicology and Human Health and Risk Assessment, told reporters. “But it’s not just a matter of toxicity of the chemicals, it’s a matter of exposure.”

Residents who have water wells near the river have been told not to use their water until they can have it tested for the toxic chemicals.  The toxic sludge has been moving downriver into parts of the Navajo Nation indian reservation and into northwest New Mexico.

The EPA has been criticized by state officials in Colorado and New Mexico for failing to report the incident to them.  New Mexico’s Governor, Susana Martinez, said that the New Mexico government only learned of the spill when local indian nation officials reported something was wrong with the river.

“It’s completely irresponsible for the EPA not to have informed New Mexico immediately,” she said after flying over the affected rivers.