Today's News: March 09, 2018

World News

After Four Years, Malaysia Almost Ready to End Search for Missing Flight MH370
Sputnik – Thursday marks the fourth anniversary of the infamous disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in 2014, but the plane and its 239 passengers remain missing. The investigation continues, but is likely to conclude in the next couple months.

School Bans Kids From Touching Snow Because They Might Get Hurt
Off The Grid News – Children at a British school are no longer allowed to touch snow in the name of safety.
“The rules are don’t touch the snow,” head teacher (principal) Ges Smith told the TV show Good Morning Britain. “If you don’t touch the snow you’re not going to throw it.”
Smith is afraid that kids who touch snow might start making snowballs and tossing them at each other, The Telegraph reported.

Man Went on Stabbing Attack in Vienna Because He Was in a Bad Mood, Police Say
AP – An Afghan man admitted to stabbing and severely injuring a family of three and a 20-year-old compatriot in Vienna because “he was in a bad, aggressive mood and upset about his life’s situation,” Austrian police said Thursday.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

College Warns Saying “God Bless You” is Islamophobic
Todd Starnes – If you happen to be in the library at Simmons College in Boston – and somebody sneezes — whatever you do — don’t say “God bless you.”
That’s because the librarians believe that the phrase “God Bless You” can spark something worse than a microagression. They fear it could spark an Islamophobic microaggression.

CNN Admits: U.S. Town Where Guns Are Required Has Had Only 1 Murder in 6 Years
Breitbart – CNN admitted in a report on March 6, 2018, that a Georgia town requiring gun ownership has only seen one murder in six years and maintains a violent crime rate of less than two percent.
CNN reports that Kennesaw, Georgia, adopted an ordinance in 1982 requiring the head of every household to “maintain a firearm.”
CNN suggested the law requiring gun ownership is not actually enforced, but it simultaneously reported that the town of Kennesaw has only witnessed one murder in the past six years. In other words, just the common knowledge that guns are in the hands of law-abiding citizens appears to restrain the actions of criminals.
Kennesaw Police Department Lt. Craig Graydon said, “It was meant to be kind of a crime deterrent.”

California governor says Trump administration waging war against state
Yahoo – California Governor Jerry Brown on Wednesday accused President Donald Trump’s administration of declaring war on the most populous U.S. state, after the Justice Department sued to stop policies that protect illegal immigrants against deportation. The Democratic governor made the charge shortly after Attorney General Jeff Sessions intensified the Republican administration’s confrontation with California.

Does Trump violate First Amendment by blocking users on Twitter? Judge to decide
RT – Donald Trump’s tweeting impacts news, policy and diplomacy, but is it a “state action” or a personal one? A federal judge is to rule on whether the president violates the First Amendment rights of those he blocks.
U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan, New York, heard arguments on Thursday as part of a lawsuit brought by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and several individual Twitter users in July 2017.

FBI opens criminal probe over police beating of North Carolina man for jaywalking
Yahoo – Body camera footage shows two police officers confronting Johnnie Rush, who was accused of jaywalking — with an officer tackling, punching and tasering Rush.

Government Accountability Office: American Taxpayers Gave $1.5 Billion to Abortion Providers
Breitbart – Federal and state taxpayers provided $1.5 billion in funding to abortion providers over a three-year period, says a new report released by the watchdog agency Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Florida’s Governor Expected to Sign School Safety Bill
Newsmax – Florida Gov. Rick Scott is expected to meet Friday with families of the 17 people killed in a school shooting and sign a $400 million school safety bill with new gun controls opposed by the NRA

Florida Paper: Sheriff Scott Israel Stonewalling Release of Parkland Surveillance Video
Breitbart – An op-ed in the Sun Sentinel claims that Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel is stonewalling the release of surveillance video that could clear up exactly what law enforcement did or failed to do in response to the February 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Martin Shkreli sentenced to 7 years in prison
CNN – Martin Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison on Friday for defrauding investors out of more than $10 million.
Shkreli, who gained notoriety for inflating the price of a life-saving drug, had faced up to 20 years behind bars for mismanaging money at his hedge funds.

Video: The Architects of Western Decline – A Study on the Frankfurt School and Cultural Marxism – Published on Jul 26, 2017
This is the long overdue study of the Frankfurt School and Cultural Marxist philosophy which now controls Western intellectualism, politics, and culture. It was by design; it was created by an internationalist intelligentsia to eradicate Western values, social systems, and European racial groups in a pre-emptive attempt to spark global, communist (think liberal) revolution. Andrew Breitbart’s historical notes are taken into the narrative.

Economy & Business

Toys R Us considers closing all U.S. stores
Bloomberg – Toys “R” Us Inc. is making preparations for a liquidation of its bankrupt U.S. operations after so far failing to find a buyer or reach a debt restructuring deal with lenders, according to people familiar with the matter.
While the situation is still fluid, a shutdown of the U.S. division has become increasingly likely in recent days, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Hopes are fading that a buyer will emerge to keep some of the business operating, or that lenders will agree on terms of a debt restructuring, the people said.

Energy & Environment

Out Of Control Chinese Space Station Carrying Toxic Waste Will Crash To Earth In Days
SHFT Plan – China’s first prototype station, Tiangong-1, will come crashing back to Earth between March 29 and April 9, experts say. The space station is carrying toxic waste, and it’s still unknown where Tiangong-1 will actually hit once it falls back to the planet.
The Chinese space station is said to be errant and out of control while carrying extremely hazardous toxic waste. The problem is that the space station is going to crash into the Earth within the next 21 days, and experts have no idea where it’s going to land.
According to The Daily Mail, the doomed 8.5-tonne craft, which has been hurtling towards Earth since control was lost in 2016, is believed to contain dangerous hydrazine. Agencies around the world who have been monitoring its descent believe it has a higher chance of hitting Europe, the US, Australia, and New Zealand. However, no one really knows where it’s most likely to actually impact.

Nuclear Alert: Belgium Distributed Iodine Pills, But Claims There’s ‘No Risk’
SHFT Plan – Belgium has randomly begun the free distribution of iodine pills to its citizens. Millions of boxes of pills have been delivered, but the Belgium government continues to claim there is no risk of radiation.
Pharmacies have begun receiving some of the 4.5 million boxes of iodine pills, which have been available for citizens for free since Tuesday. This was revealed during the presentation of a new plan in the extreme case of a nuclear emergency. The distribution of the medicine, which is considered beneficial for radiation-affected citizens, came as an updated emergency plan came into effect.
According to RT, in 2017, the Belgium government launched a website, explaining to its 11 million citizens the step-by-step instructions on what to do in case of a nuclear accident. The alert states that in emergency situations, citizens should always follow recommendations of the authorities, which include seeking shelter, following evacuation orders and taking iodine pills.

Science & Technology

US Air Force: Time for B-52 to Get Smarter (Bombs)
Sputnik – The US Air Force’s aging B-52 Stratofortress is slated for a weapons bay renovation to provide pilots with more attack options during combat missions, Warrior Maven reports.

Amazon Admits Alexa Is Creepily Laughing At People
Prison Planet – While there are plenty of stories of artificial intelligence gone wrong, it seems many recent new owners of Amazon’s Alexa devices have been rudely woken by “bone-chillingly creepy” laughing from their AI friend. As The Daily Mail reports, some users say their Alexa-enabled gadgets start laughing totally unprompted.

Athletes Are Turning to Leeches to Try to Gain Wolverine-Like Healing Powers
Gizmodo – eeches are now enjoying a renaissance in the doctor’s office. Artur Klena, identified as the laboratory head of a Polish leech exporting firm, told Reuters that among other things, sports clubs are buying up leeches to help their jocks “regenerate muscles after intensive exercise.”
Leeches have been used for thousands of years to treat a variety of medical conditions, including pain, gout, fever, and hearing loss. For most of that time, leeches were revered simply because they sucked blood out from us—the leading theory being that sickness was caused by an imbalance of “humors.”
More recently, however, doctors and researchers have found that leeches—and the cocktail of chemicals found inside their saliva that aid their dine-and-dash routine—really can have useful effects on the body. Their saliva contains powerful blood-thinners and anti-inflammatory chemicals that have been used to develop treatments for cardiovascular disease, while the leeches themselves can clean up some gaping wounds better than other modern methods we have available. Other research has found evidence that components in leech saliva could possibly even treat cancer pain or tackle conditions like arthritis.=

Health

Major side effects from popular medicines: Beta-blockers and painkillers found to double risk of stroke
NaturalNews – Every two seconds, someone somewhere is having a stroke, and the cause isn’t always what you’re told.
The study, which included nearly 22,000 participants, was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. The researchers found that people who take common anticholinergic medications are 59 percent more likely to suffer a stroke and have an 86 percent higher chance of dying from a stroke. Medications that increase stroke risk include the following: Piriton, a hay fever remedy, Valium, an anti-anxiety drug, Imodium, a diarrhea drug, codeine, a common painkiller, and beta blockers. This includes all generic forms of these drugs as well. The drugs with the greatest risk were pethidine, a painkiller, amitriptyline, used to treat nerve pain, oxybutynin, used to treat bladder conditions, and other common, over-the-counter anti-histamines.
Over a third of patients 65 and older in the National Health Services are currently using these drugs.

Exposure to Cleaning Products Are as Bad as Pack-a-Day Smoking
Mercola – Before modern soap products were sold in the mid-1900s, most people used water and white vinegar for their household cleaning needs. Over the past 50 years, the number of soaps, detergents and cleaning solutions have grown at an amazing rate as manufacturers try to meet the demands of consumers looking for a quick, fragrant solution to a dirty problem.5
However, recent research from the University of Bergen in Norway demonstrates those who use chemical household cleaners as seldom as once a week experience an accelerated decline in lung function. Once-weekly use of cleaning products for 20 years may be equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes a day for 10 to 20 years.
Data from over 6,000 participants, whose average age was 34 when they enrolled in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey, were analyzed. Using 20 years of data, researchers found women who used commercial cleaning solutions experienced a reduction in lung function, as measured by forced expiratory volume and forced vital capacity, much faster than those who used them more seldom or not at all.

Critique of Proposed Regulations of Homeopathic Medicines and Alternative Proposals
Mercola -In December 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced their interest in protecting consumers from “potentially harmful, unproven homeopathic drugs.”1 The FDA is proposing to nullify its previous guidelines by which homeopathic medicines can be marketed. Instead, the FDA would deem all homeopathic medicines to be “unapproved new drugs,” which would make them subject to enforcement based on the perceived “risk/benefit” of a specific drug.
Some legal analysts and health writers initially wondered if the FDA’s proposed guidelines would mean that homeopathic medicines may become “illegal,” but the FDA has assured the American public that the agency doesn’t plan to begin requiring that homeopathic products get “drug” approval. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, told reporters during a teleconference that many homeopathic medicines will not be considered “high risk” and will still be available to consumers.
However, Woodcock asserted that the FDA would “go after” homeopathic medicines that “cause or might cause” overt harm. The homeopathic community supports the FDA in its efforts to increase the safest possible use of all types of drugs, including homeopathic medicines, but homeopaths and others question the logic of going after homeopathic medicines that “might cause” harm