March 29, 2024

The Power Hour

Knowledge is Power

Toady's News: July 27, 2018

World News
Putin ‘ready to go to Washington,’ invites Trump to Moscow
Daily Mail – Russian President Vladimir Putin says has invited President Donald Trump to visit him in Moscow, he said Friday – and the White House said Trump is ready to host Putin after January.
‘President Trump looks forward to having President Putin to Washington after the first of the year, and he is open to visiting Moscow upon receiving a formal invitation,’ White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement Friday.
Putin told reporters in South Africa that phone calls were not sufficient, and the two men needed to talk about the Iran nuclear deal and other topics.
Blame game blows up over deadly Greek wildfires
AFP – Grief and shock over Greece’s deadliest wildfires were clouded Friday by a bitter debate over who was to blame, as the opposition rejected the government’s suggestion that the blazes were started deliberately.
Deputy Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Toskas on Thursday suggested there were “serious” signs that the worst of the fires, which killed scores this week east of Athens, was the result of arson.
Forensics experts pressed ahead Friday with the difficult task of identifying the bodies of the 82 people known to have perished in the catastrophe.
>> Related: Now floods hit capital
Nicaragua in ‘undeclared state of siege’ as hooded gunmen rule streets
They ride in the back of Toyota double-cabin pickup trucks, assault rifles slung over their shoulders. No one knows their identities. They always wear black ski masks or hoods.
The gunmen — between 1,000 and 1,500 of them, according to some estimates — are part of a recently formed paramilitary force protecting the continued rule of President Daniel Ortega against a three-month-old civilian uprising. Their main tactic is terror. They conduct roundups, fire at protesters, carry out dark-of-night raids and menace the population.
The Pro-Human Rights Association of Nicaragua said Thursday that paramilitary forces have conducted 595 “kidnappings” and disappearances of citizens since the uprising began April 18. The group said it has tallied 97 killings since July 11.
Violence as migrants storm Morocco-Spain border fence
Daily Mail – Some 400 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa reached Spain Thursday after storming a double barrier between Morocco and the Spanish territory of Ceuta, with some attacking security forces with quicklime, police said.
The scramble over the barrier is the biggest in Ceuta since February 2017, when more than 850 migrants entered the overseas territory over four days.
It comes as Spain becomes the number one destination for migrants crossing the Mediterranean by boat, surpassing Italy with 19,586 arrivals so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Saudi Arabia WAR THREAT: Oil tankers BOMBED – Saudis BAN exports through Red Sea straits
Express – IRAN-BACKED Yemeni rebels aligned have launched an attack on two oil tankers passing through the strategically important Red Sea shipping lane of Bab Al-Mandeb – prompting Saudi Arabia to announce that was “temporarily halting” all oil shipments along the route.
U.S. News
Omarosa to Release ‘Explosive’ Memoir Next Month…
USA Today – Omarosa ready to exact revenge on Trump White House in tell-all book due Aug. 14
MAXINE WATERS CALLS FOR ‘STREET’ RAGE OVER TRUMP
Daily Caller – California Rep. Maxine Waters said that Americans should be “out in the streets screaming” about President Trump in a Wednesday interview.
Waters told CNBC’s John Harwood, “I think [Trump’s] dangerous.”
“I don’t know why people take it. I think Americans should be out in the streets screaming to the top of their voice. Do something. Make something happen,” she continued.
During the interview, she also said, “[Trump is] one of the most deplorable people I’ve ever encountered in my life.”
Wisconsin ordered to pay for gender reassignment surgeries
AP – A federal judge has ordered Wisconsin to pay for the gender reassignment surgery for two transgender Medicaid recipients.
Cody Flack, 30, and Sara Ann Makenzie, 41, filed a lawsuit in April, saying a state rule denying coverage for surgeries to treat gender dysphoria violates the Affordable Care Act and their right to equal protection, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The state rule that excludes coverage for undefined “transsexual surgery” was adopted in 1996.
U.S. District Judge William Conley granted a preliminary injunction Wednesday barring enforcement of the rule. He suggested the injunction could be expanded to include any transgender Medicaid patient whose doctor recommends the surgery.
NYT, AP Dig for Dirt on Kavanaugh Wife
NTK Network – The New York Times and Associated Press both filed requests under the Maryland Public Information Act (PIA) seeking e-mails that Ashley Kavanaugh, the wife of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, sent as town manager of The Village of Chevy Chase Section 5, according to documents obtained by America Rising Squared (AR2) and shared exclusively with the NTK Network.
Bernie Sanders Adviser Is Assisting Special Counsel Investigation In Manafort Case
Buzzfeed – Tad Devine, a political operative who served at the highest levels of the Bernie Sanders campaign, will assist in the special counsel office’s prosecution of Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chair, according to a statement released Thursday.
CA Whistleblower Audit Finds Sleeping State Employee And More
CBS – The California State Auditor released its yearly Whistleblower Act report Tuesday and it found a number of disturbing violations and misuse of taxpayer dollars. The report includes investigations into one DMV employee who slept at her desk for extended periods of time during work hours, a prison worker who regularly left early from work for more than two years, and two groundskeepers who routinely left work for hours at a time.
The 67-page audit covers investigative work done on 1,481 cases from July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018.
Economy & Business
DISNEYFOX shareholders approve blockbuster $71-billion deal
LA Times – Walt Disney Co. and 21st Century Fox Inc. shareholders on Friday overwhelmingly approved Disney’s proposed $71.3-billion takeover of much of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox — a milestone in a merger that is expected to dramatically reshape the entertainment industry.
TWITTER down 16% after reporting declining monthly active users
CNBC – Twitter shares opened down 14 percent Friday after the company reported a decline in monthly active users and weak guidance.
States drowning in ‘irretrievable’ debt
Fox – Connecticut may be the richest state in the country, on a per capita basis, but it’s racked up a sizable debt worth more than $53 billion – and it could be taxpayers who are forced to bail out the Constitution State, according to the former governor of Indiana.
“Someone’s going to the barbershop,” Mitch Daniels, a Republican, said during an interview with FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on Thursday. “The first will be the taxpayers, already beleaguered in some of these states.”
And Connecticut isn’t the only state struggling with a debt crisis: California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York are unable to make pension payments to retired government workers.
DOJ Investigates TV Station Owners Over Ad Sales
WSJ – The Justice Department is investigating whether television station owners violated antitrust law in ways that inflated local television advertising prices, according to people familiar with the matter.
BANK OF AMERICA Customers Find Safety Deposit Boxes Vanished; No Explanations
CBS – A woman says her bank let her safe deposit box vanish. And she’s not the only one.
Susan Nomi says when she went to open her Bank of America safe deposit box of 16 years, the entire box was gone.
Energy & Environment
Deadly California wildfire ‘taking down everything in path’
ABC – The Carr Fire in Northern California that has claimed the life of a bulldozer operator and injured at least three firefighters is “taking everything down in its path,” a fire official said.
Science & Technology
FACEBOOK bans Alex Jones for 30 days
Mashable – A mere matter of days after InfoWars founder Alex Jones received yet another YouTube strike — but wasn’t banned — he’s been hit with a 30-day block on Facebook.
Jones received another strike on YouTube this week for violating community guidelines in four videos, which have since been taken down.
At 60, NASA shoots for revival of moon glory days
AFP – Sixty years ago, spurred by competition with the Soviet Union, the United States created NASA, launching a journey that would take Americans to the moon within a decade.
Since then, the US space agency has seen glorious achievements and crushing failures in its drive to push the frontiers of space exploration, including a fatal launch pad fire in 1967 that killed three and two deadly shuttle explosions in 1986 and 2003 that took 14 lives.
Now, NASA is struggling to redefine itself in an increasingly crowded field of international space agencies and commercial interests, with its sights set on returning to deep space.
These bold goals make for soaring rhetoric, but experts worry the cash just isn’t there to meet the timelines of reaching the moon in the next decade and Mars by the 2030s.
America’s Adversaries Are Weaponizing Information, NSA Director Warns
Washington Free Beacon – U.S. needs a whole-of-government effort to counter foreign influence and cyber attacks
Artificial intelligence begins diagnosing patients in Iowa
The Gazette – The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics has become the first to employ new technology — developed by a company rooted in the university’s research engine — that uses artificial intelligence to diagnose an eye disease.
On June 12, the Diabetes and Endocrinology Center at UI Health Care-Iowa River Landing in Coralville began using technology developed by IDx, the Coralville-based medical diagnostics company.
The device, which received approval from U.S. Food and Drug Administration in April, was developed to diagnose diabetic retinopathy, a diabetes complication that can cause blindness.
Health
Mutated HIV strains may cause quicker illness.
The Guardian – Mutated strains of HIV circulating in a Canadian province where HIV rates rank among the highest in North America could be leading to the more rapid development of Aids-related illnesses, according to new research.
The research, published in the scientific journal Aids, was sparked by anecdotal reports from Saskatchewan, where HIV rates in 2016 exceeded the national average tenfold in some areas. Nearly
80% of those infected with HIV in the province are indigenous.
Healing Powers of Garlic Confirmed by Research
Newsmax – As scientists look into the effects of diet on health, they’re finding that more and more everyday foods offer benefits that go well beyond making dishes tastier. Garlic, an ingredient found in almost every cuisine, has emerged as one such superfood.
29 Common Foods that are Bad for Your Brain
Treehugger- After a decade of research, a science journalist uncovers dietary culprits that appear to sabotage cognitive function.
These are readily available foods that are most often processed, and loaded with simple carbs, fat and salt. Some of them pose as healthful. Since nutrition is one of the easiest ways to practice preventative medicine – and since good health and wellness are an important tenet of sustainability – we think these 29 (and their kin) are definitely good ones to keep in mind.
What You Eat Now May Affect Future Generations
Care2 – If pregnant crickets are exposed to a predatory wolf spider, their babies will hatch, exhibiting increased anti-predator behavior and, as a consequence, improved survival from wolf spider attack. The mother cricket appears to be able to forewarn her babies about the threat when they are still inside her, so they would be pre-adapted to their external environment. This even happens in plants.
What does this have to do with diet? Can what a pregnant woman eats—or doesn’t eat—permanently alter the biology of her children in terms of what genes are turned on or off throughout life?
Good News
Photographer Snaps Photo Of Mother Duck Swimming — With 76 Ducklings!
WCCO – A mama duck in Minnesota has captured hearts across the nation after a Bemidji photographer snapped an image of her leading an astonishing 76 ducklings across a lake.
Amateur wildlife photographer Brent Cizek noticed the exceptional common merganser, which he now calls Mama Merganser, late last month during a photo session on Lake Bemidji.
Pet News
Blue Buffalo Gets Its Day in Court — And Then This Happened

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