A deadly pig virus has been discovered in Nebraska, making it the 20th state to be hit by Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea.
The disease had not been seen in North America until May when it was first discovered in the U.S. The disease has a high mortality rate among young piglets, with a 50 percent death rate on a farm infected with the virus common. However, USDA officials said in some cases the virus killed all the piglets on a farm.
Older pigs can be impacted by the disease but have a much lower mortality rate.
The National Pork Board has issued biosecurity guidelines to pork producers in an attempt to stop the epidemic. The spread of the virus is believed to be connected in some way with the trucking industry as most pigs are transferred via truck.
The deaths of piglets is leading market experts to see a steep decline in hog supplies through summer 2014.
A man convicted of masterminding a $100 million fraud involving Navy veterans could be spending the rest of his life in prison.
John Donald Cody, 67, is a Harvard-trained attorney who was convicted of racketeering, theft, money laundering and 12 counts of identity theft in connection with his looting of the United States Navy Veterans Association.
Cody defrauded veterans and supporters in 41 states but Ohio took the lead in prosecuting him. He was arrested after spending two years on the run after hiding out in Portland, Oregon. Only a small amount of the $100 million was found.
The Ohio state attorney general’s office, which handled the prosecution, is asking the judge to sentence Cody to 41 years in prison and a fine of $6.3 million.
Cody’s defense team is calling for a new trial saying that their legal defense was ineffective because of limited preparation time and their client’s erratic behavior and cooperation.
The volcano under Yellowstone National Park, which scientists in April said was larger than previously believed, has now been found to exceed even the earlier expectations.
A sound wave study of the magna chamber under the park has found that it measures 55 miles by 20 miles and contains over 140 cubic miles of molten rock. The team from the University of Utah called their discovery “astounding.”
They also said if the volcano were to erupt it would wipe out America and would devastate life in the rest of the world.
The scientists say the volcano erupts every 700,000 years and that the last time the volcano roared was about 650,000 years ago.
In addition, about twenty smaller super volcanoes have been discovered nearby on the Utah/Nevada border.
Corrections officers at Rikers Island are being told to take extra precautions after reports that inmates have begin participating in the “Knockout Game”.
A female corrections officer told MyFoxNY that she is still reeling from wounds she suffered when attacked in a Knockout Game style attack on November 30th. She said the game is spreading within the prison walls.
“[An inmate]came right out of the bathroom and punched me in my eye,” she said.
She suffered a fractured eye socket and may need surgery for her blurry vision.
Correction officers union officials said that the game is being used by inmates to prove how tough they are to other inmates. The wounded officer said that she won’t be intimidated by the attack and looks forward to wearing her uniform again.
On the heels of being named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, Pope Francis has sent a message to the Americas with a bold pro-life message.
The Pope said that America has been called to be a “land prepared to accept life at every stage, from the mother’s womb to old age.”
The remarks were part of the Pope’s weekly general audience Wednesday and was recorded to be broadcasted to America. The address on December 12th was to celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe because the church believes the mother of Jesus appeared to a Mexican peasant on that day in 1531.
Catholics honor Our Lady of Guadalupe as the patroness of the unborn and her image is frequently used for signs held at pro-life vigils.
“Mary’s embrace showed what America – North and South – is called to be: a land where different peoples come together; a land prepared to accept human life at every stage, from the mother’s womb to old age; a land which welcomes immigrants, and the poor and the marginalized, in every age. A land of generosity,” the Pope said.
A Christian apologist and university professor says that the church is in desperate need of churches who will prepare their members to address the tough questions about faith and God.
Dr. William Craig of the Talbot School of Theology says that Christians should be concerned about recent studies like the Pew survey that showed nearly 20 percent of Americans consider themselves “religious” but not affiliated with any religious group.
Dr. Craig alluded to social changes in the world that have removed the stigma of being an atheist and making them bolder in working to remove Christians from society and shouting down any Christian with hate speech when they defend the faith.
“I think that many Christians are intimidated because atheists are often very aggressive,” Dr. Craig told the Christian Post. “They will attack you personally, and they will do so in the name of reason and intellectual arguments. And many Christians feel utterly unprepared to give a defense of what they believe, and feel unprepared to answer the tough questions that their unbelieving friends will put to them.”
Dr. Craig has defended the faith in many venues with atheists and noted atheist author Richard Dawkins continues to be afraid to debate Dr. Craig in a one-on-one setting. Atheist author Sam Harris said in a recent article Dr. Craig has “put the fear of God into many of my fellow atheists.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is moving back and forth between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators with a stated goal of finalizing a peace accord by spring.
Kerry will hold private talks today and Friday with Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on regarding a West Bank security plan. Kerry had unveiled details of the plan for the West Bank during a visit to the region last week.
Palestinians expressed their dislike of the proposed agreement. They expressed concerns that the deal will give in to Israeli demands while offering only promises to the Palestinian people.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that the negotiations were really an “ongoing discussion” and that “we expect they wil talk about security, as they will discuss other issues.”
President Obama had said over the weekend he believed it was possible to get the framework of a deal together in just a few months.
Amid public outrage over reports that the NSA has been collection massive amount of information about average Americans as part of their bulk collection spying efforts, the head of the National Security Agency is asking Congress to not change their ability to spy on a global scale.
General Keith Alexander pleaded with the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying that the risk to America from global threats is growing every single day. He said that the bulk collection efforts of the NSA provide vital information that intelligence services can use to stop terrorist activity both at home and abroad.
Gen. Alexander told the Senators that bulk collection was the only way to “connect the dots” between foreign terror threats and any potential terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
The program was revealed as part of the massive document release from fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Gen. Alexander admitted to Senators the NSA would be open to finding a better solution with the help of technology companies.
The Michigan State Legislature has approved an initiative that would require any woman that wishes to have abortion coverage purchase it as a separate rider on their insurance rather than having it covered as part of Obamacare’s main packages.
Michigan Right To Life began the citizen-initiated petition drive after Republican Governor Rick Snyder vetoed similar legislation last year when it was inserted into a bill to change the state’s Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Republicans in the legislature said taxpayers should not have to pay for a woman’s abortions. Representative Nancy Jenkins said the bill doesn’t stop abortion in the state in any way or even restrict access to abortion for any woman.
Almost all Democratic members of both houses were vehemently and loudly opposed to the initiative and passage. They said that the bill was an overreach of government.
Democratic Representative Marcia Hovey-Wright said that supporting the bill to not make the state pay for abortions via Obamacare placed someone on the wrong side of history.
Today’s release from fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden says that the NSA was spying on users through the cookies that web browsers save to customize commercial space on sites like Google.
According to an internal presentation slide showed that when companies follow internet consumers to better serve advertising it opens the door for government tracking. The slides suggest the NSA was already using the tracking to follow targets.
Online privacy advocates had been claiming for years the tracking tools called “cookies” left open the possibility for violations of web user privacy.
Cookies can allow the NSA to track a single individual’s communications among all internet transactions. Cookies are not just reserved for browsers on desktop or laptop computers. Smartphone apps that run on iPhones and Android devices, even the Apple and Google operating systems, track the location of each device sometimes without alerting the device’s owner.
The slides did not say how the NSA obtained access to Google’s tracking system.