"Doug Casey's International Man Network is a highly-actionable and practical service for new and experienced freedom-seekers, investors, adventurers, speculators and expatriates who are looking to make the most of their personal freedom and financial opportunity around the world. Become internationalized to reduce the political risk of being dependent on any single, and potentially desperate, government." Continue reading →
"Rita Hutchens is a 57-year-old quilt artist from Sandpoint, Idaho. Until two years ago, she had never experienced trouble with the police. After checking on a rental property, Rita was followed home by an officer who assaulted her and arrested her without cause. The resisting and obstructing charge against Rita was thrown out of court by a judge who recognized that there was no legal cause for the police officer to be on Rita’s property or lay hands on her. She is now enduring a campaign of undisguised harassment and persecution from city and county officials that has included a midnight police raid on her home and an order that she undergo a psychiatric evaluation." Continue reading →
"In November 2010, 17-year-old Utah resident Tamsen Reid was stopped by former Box Elder County, Utah, Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Womack. She and her two friends were told to get out of the car, stand barefoot in the snow, and submit to an invasive search. Womack told them to lift their shirts and expose their breasts so he could search for tattoos and body piercings. Reid was singled out for special attention. Womack told her to get in the back of his patrol vehicle, remove her clothes, and spread her legs so he could inspect her for an intimate tattoo. When the teenager refused, Womack warned her that she could either submit or be taken to jail." Continue reading →
"According to FBI spokesman Tom Simon, the passenger’s luggage contained what appeared to be a modified pressure cooker, which was discovered through standard Transportation Security Administration screening. The passenger was detained for questioning but was not placed under arrest, Simon said. The pressure cooker and some of the contents of the luggage were seized by the FBI for analysis. Simon today declined further comment, and did not respond to a question from Big Island Now as to whether pressure cookers are now among the items prohibited from being carried on board airlines, either in carry-on or checked baggage." Continue reading →
"Firefighters had to rescue an NYPD officer stuck in a tree after the cop climbed up to try and save a cat Monday in Queens. The FDNY responded with a tower ladder and found the officer and the cat about 30 feet up in the tree. Both were rescued 'safe and sound,' FDNY says. 'It was kind of comical,' said neighbor Jeff Yu. 'They seemed to be enjoying themselves. There were no rude comments or anything.' The officer had lit a flare and set up cones on the ground underneath the tree before going up but onlookers ignored them as they gathered and gawked from the ground, said Yu." Continue reading →
"Some West residents may end up paying taxes this year on homes that no longer exist. Residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed in the April 17 West Fertilizer Co. explosion have until the end of May to protest the appraisals on which property taxes are based. But under state law, appraisal values are supposed to reflect the value of the property on Jan. 1 of the tax year. Section 23.03 of the Texas Property Tax Code allows local governments to authorize reappraisals after natural disasters, but the fertilizer plant explosion wouldn’t qualify." Continue reading →
"A mob of nine men beat David Sal Silva, 33, to death in Bakersfield, California, last week. They hogtied him, bashed his head with batons, picked him up and then dropped him at least twice as he screamed and pleaded for his life. They committed this crime openly – I would say in broad daylight, except that it was around midnight. Nonetheless, they slaughtered Mr. Silva on a fairly busy road, across the street from a hospital and in view of the neighborhood’s residents and passers-by. Where are the cops in all this? Protecting their own: the nine killers are sheriffs from Kern County." Continue reading →
"Authorities in Kern County, California are defending themselves against criticism for confiscating cell phone video of seven sheriff’s deputies’ fatal encounter with a 33-year-old man. But witnesses to the May 8 incident involving the deputies and 33-year-old David Silva said deputies overstepped their bounds in gathering that evidence. A witness told the Bakersfield Californian that two detectives entered her apartment to seize video taken by her boyfriend and blocked the entrance, then demanded her mother’s phone. Another witness gave the family surveillance footage taken near the site of the encounter that shows deputies hitting Silva with their nightsticks." Continue reading →
"The US administration pushed back Tuesday after being accused of undermining press freedom by seizing reporters’ phone records, claiming officials took the drastic steps to protect American lives. Amid a barrage of criticism, Attorney General Eric Holder said telephone logs were secretly taken from US news agency the Associated Press as part of a probe into a security breach which had put the American people at risk. The comments came as President Barack Obama’s administration faced heavy criticism over the Justice Department’s decision to seize two months of phone records from the news operations of the Associated Press." Continue reading →
"The same IRS office that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year. In response to a request for the applications for 67 different nonprofits last November, the Cincinnati office of the IRS sent ProPublica applications or documentation for 31 groups. Nine of those applications had not yet been approved - meaning they were not supposed to be made public." Continue reading →