Winning Hearts & Minds

Feeding Homeless Apparently Illegal in Raleigh, NC

"This morning we showed up at Moore Square at 9:00 a.m., just like we have done virtually every Saturday and Sunday for the last six years. We provide, without cost or obligation, hot coffee and a breakfast sandwich to anyone who wants one. We keep this promise to our community in cooperation with five different large suburban churches that help us with manpower and funding. Today officers from Raleigh Police Department prevented us from doing our work, for the first time ever. An officer said, quite bluntly, that if we attempted to distribute food, we would be arrested." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFeeding Homeless Apparently Illegal in Raleigh, NC

Feeding Homeless Apparently Illegal in Raleigh, NC

"This morning we showed up at Moore Square at 9:00 a.m., just like we have done virtually every Saturday and Sunday for the last six years. We provide, without cost or obligation, hot coffee and a breakfast sandwich to anyone who wants one. We keep this promise to our community in cooperation with five different large suburban churches that help us with manpower and funding. Today officers from Raleigh Police Department prevented us from doing our work, for the first time ever. An officer said, quite bluntly, that if we attempted to distribute food, we would be arrested." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFeeding Homeless Apparently Illegal in Raleigh, NC

Feeding Homeless Apparently Illegal in Raleigh, NC

"This morning we showed up at Moore Square at 9:00 a.m., just like we have done virtually every Saturday and Sunday for the last six years. We provide, without cost or obligation, hot coffee and a breakfast sandwich to anyone who wants one. We keep this promise to our community in cooperation with five different large suburban churches that help us with manpower and funding. Today officers from Raleigh Police Department prevented us from doing our work, for the first time ever. An officer said, quite bluntly, that if we attempted to distribute food, we would be arrested." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFeeding Homeless Apparently Illegal in Raleigh, NC

Black people in London twice as likely to be charged with drug possession

"Black people are not just significantly more likely to be searched by police for drugs than their white peers, but face almost double the chance of being charged if any are found, according to a study of racial disparities in the way drug laws are enforced. The study showed, for instance, disparities for cocaine possession in London, with 78% of black people charged, compared with 44% of white people. Black people were also almost twice as likely to be charged for possession of cannabis in the capital. There were also stark differences with the way courts deal with drug possession, with black people being jailed for the offence at six times the rate of white people." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBlack people in London twice as likely to be charged with drug possession

Bush Winks, Sends Millions in Untraceable Cash to Musharraf [2007]

"After Pervez Musharraf declared martial law this weekend, Condoleezza Rice vowed to review U.S. assistance to Pakistan, one of the largest foreign recipients of American aid. Musharraf, of course, has been a crucial American ally since the start of the Afghanistan war in 2001, and the U.S. has rewarded him ever since with over $10 billion in civilian and (mostly) military largesse. A considerable amount of the money the U.S. gives to Pakistan is administered not through U.S. agencies or joint U.S.-Pakistani programs. Instead, the U.S. gives Musharraf's government about $200 million annually and his military $100 million monthly in the form of direct cash transfers." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBush Winks, Sends Millions in Untraceable Cash to Musharraf [2007]

Pakistan’s Musharraf charged over murder of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto

"Pakistan’s ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf was indicted on three counts Tuesday over the 2007 murder of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in a gun and suicide attack, a prosecutor said. Charging a former army chief is an unprecedented move in a country ruled for more than half of its life by the military and where the army is still considered the most powerful institution. It was the second time that Musharraf, who ruled the nuclear-armed state from 1999-2008, had been summoned to face charges of criminal conspiracy and the murder of Bhutto in December 2007. Musharraf denies the charges and the case has been adjourned until August 27." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPakistan’s Musharraf charged over murder of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto

Oil and gas drillers use complex schemes to stiff retired landowners for royalties

"From Pennsylvania to North Dakota, a powerful argument for allowing extensive new drilling has been that royalty payments would enrich local landowners, lifting the economies of heartland and rural America. The boom was also supposed to fill the government’s coffers, since roughly 30 percent of the nation’s drilling takes place on federal land. Over the last decade, an untold number of leases were signed, and hundreds of thousands of wells have been sunk into new energy deposits across the country. But manipulation of costs and other data by oil companies is keeping billions of dollars in royalties out of the hands of private and government landholders." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOil and gas drillers use complex schemes to stiff retired landowners for royalties

Housing Vouchers: Equal Opportunity Crime-Sharing

"There is an alliance. Libertarians do not like tax-funded education, so they oppose vouchers. The teachers' union does not like inter-school academic competition, so they oppose vouchers. Suburban parents do not like forced integration, so they oppose vouchers. All in all, vouchers have been a gigantic failure. After 50 years of failure, HUD has decided to use another form of vouchers: vouchers that are not subject to local voting. HUD has broadened the scope of vouchers. Entire families will be granted tickets out. HUD will offer subsidies of all kinds to persuade cities to let the inner cities of America spread into the suburbs." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHousing Vouchers: Equal Opportunity Crime-Sharing

Police Crackdown at Burning Man Alarms the Community

"Workers and volunteers who arrived early to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert for the annual art, self-reliance, and free-expression event called Burning Man are reporting an unprecedented police presence on the playa, and whispers of a police crackdown on the event are spreading. Burning Man has historically been a peaceful event with little to no incidents that would merit increased law enforcement. For example, at last year’s event, which had more than 52,000 attendees, a total of four drug-related arrests were made and 13 nonviolent misdemeanor citations were given (in lieu of arrests) according to the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office. No violent crimes were recorded." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPolice Crackdown at Burning Man Alarms the Community

CIA finally admits it masterminded Iran’s 1953 coup

"On the 60th anniversary of the 1953 military coup in Iran that overthrew the government of radical nationalist Mohammad Mossadegh, the US has declassified documents detailing how the CIA’s secret operation brought the country’s Shah back to power. Monday’s publication under the US Freedom of Information Act came as something of a surprise, since most of the materials and records of the 1953 coup were believed to have been destroyed by the CIA, the Archive said. The CIA said at time that its 'safes were too full.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCIA finally admits it masterminded Iran’s 1953 coup