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Bitcoin’s Big Bank Problem: Why Did Mt. Gox Halt US Payouts?

“The world’s best-known Bitcoin exchange stopped paying out customers in U.S. dollars Thursday. Mt. Gox didn’t exactly explain what was going on, though. It blamed an ‘increased volume’ of transactions, and said it would suspend U.S. cash withdrawals for two weeks as it sorted things out. The issue ‘is with processing the sheer volume through our banks in Japan, which is causing a delay,’ said Mt. Gox’s Thomas Glucksmann-Smith in an email message. ‘We are currently attempting to improve our services for this. In the meantime USD deposits are unaffected as are other currencies.'” Continue reading →

Brazilian authorities face fresh protests against government corruption despite concessions

“Authorities in Sao Paulo and Rio, Brazil’s two biggest cities, canceled the transit fare hikes that had been the initial spark for two weeks of nationwide protests. But there is no sign that the movement, which has no political coloration and no clearly identified leadership, is about to lose steam. Initially ignited by the fare increases, the protest fed on widespread resentment at the billions of dollars the government is spending on the Confederations Cup, the World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. The demonstrators instead want higher funding for education and health and a cut in salaries of public officials, railing against rampant corruption within the political class.” Continue reading →

Associated Press CEO: Sources will no longer speak to us because of phone monitoring

“The US government’s secret seizure of Associated Press phone records had a ‘chilling effect’ on newsgathering by the agency and other news organizations, AP’s top executive said Wednesday. ‘Some longtime trusted sources have become nervous and anxious about talking with us,’ AP president and chief executive Gary Pruitt said in a speech to the National Press Club. ‘In some cases, government employees we once checked in with regularly will no longer speak to us by phone. Others are reluctant to meet in person … Journalists from other news organizations have personally told me that it has intimidated both official and nonofficial sources from speaking to them as well.'” Continue reading →

WikiLeaks: Journalist Michael Hastings Under FBI Investigation Before Death

“The document-leaking organization WikiLeaks says journalist Michael Hastings called the organization’s attorney hours before his death Tuesday in a fiery one-car crash in Los Angeles. Hastings, 33, was known as a hard-charging reporter who caused Gen. Stanley McChrystal to lose his job as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan with an explosive 2010 story in Rolling Stone, in which he quoted McChrystal offering unsavory commentary about the Obama administration. In his final article, Hastings wrote of revelations that the NSA was harvesting large quantities of phone and Internet information. The FBI declined to say if Hastings was under investigation.” Continue reading →

Young Turks seek greater liberty, not revolution

“Ask the younger protesters who have taken to Turkey’s streets over the past two weeks what they are fighting for, and the response is simple: ‘More freedom’. At the forefront are a generation who, unlike their parents, have grown up in an increasingly outward-looking and fast-growing economy, a new middle class with satellite TV, smartphones and social media connections with friends around the world. Ironically it is Erdogan who has driven that change, overseeing a near-tripling in nominal wealth over his past decade in power. But for the young protesters in Ankara, Istanbul and other cities around Turkey, he has created a generation whose aspirations he no longer understands.” Continue reading →

U.S. now has most Spanish speakers outside Mexico

“Latinos are now the largest minority in the United States at 52 million people, 50 percent more than a decade ago, according to the Pew Research Hispanic Center. Except for Mexico, that is more Spanish-speakers than in any country of Latin America, and projections are that the figure will triple by 2050, when one of every three people in the US will be of Latino origin. A record 12.5 million Hispanics voted in the November 2012 election in which Barack Obama won a second term. He took 71 percent of the Latino vote.” Continue reading →

Calling All Republicans!

“Status quo, you know, is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in’.” President Ronald Reagan We won a battle today, there was no vote (HB 4714) on the Medicaid Expansion but the war is not over. Indications are TODAY IS KEY to defeating the ObamaCare Medicaid Expansion in Michigan as a vote is being pressed. …

Iran’s Ahmadinejad meets successor after being ousted in election

“Iran’s outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met his successor Hassan Rowhani on Tuesday for the first time since the moderate conservative was elected, in talks centred on political and economic issues. Rowhani, a 64-year-old cleric who is scheduled to take office on August 3, won an outright victory in Friday’s presidential election, ending Ahmadinejad’s eight years of hardline leadership. Reinforced by UN Security Council sanctions, punitive measures have cost Iran’s economy billions in vital oil revenues and foreign investment, leaving the country struggling with raging inflation, high unemployment and a depreciated currency.” Continue reading →