Today's News: March 22, 2018

World News

Deal allows Syrian rebels to evacuate town in besieged Ghouta
CBS – Syrian rebels and their families began to leave a besieged town in the eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus on Thursday, BBC News reported, in an evacuation deal that will see the town handed over to the government following years of siege.
Rebels released 13 prisoners of war ahead of the evacuation.
The deal is the first such arrangement made for a town inside the beleaguered eastern Ghouta enclave, which has endured one month of relentless shelling and bombardment as the government, backed by its ally Russia, pushed to retake the area after seven years of revolt.

Raw Milk Farmers Are Going to Prison
Mercola – In Canada, it’s illegal to sell or give away raw milk, a law that’s enforced in many provinces. In Ontario, distributing raw milk was long considered to be a regulatory offense punishable by fines, but as of January 2018 an order issued by Ontario’s Superior Court changed that. Now, anyone who distributes or sells raw milk in the area can face years in prison.
As Karen Selick, litigation director for the Canadian Constitution Foundation, wrote in the Financial Post, “[T]he province of Ontario appears eager to fill its empty jail cells with individuals whose so-called crime was distributing raw milk.”1 The injunction was part of Downing v. ARC, a legal case between Gavin Downing, Ontario’s milk director, and ARC, a farm co-op owned by Canadian raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt that was distributing raw milk to its members.
According to A Campaign for Real Milk, a project of the Weston A. Price Foundation, “In Ontario, farmers may be fined $250,000 and sentenced to three years in jail [for selling or distributing raw milk] … Challenges to these laws are now underway. And in spite of onerous penalties, Michael and Dorothea Schmidt of Glencolton Farms provide milk to cow shareholders in Toronto.”2

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Trump’s top Russia probe lawyer resigns
BBC – US President Donald Trump’s lead lawyer for the special counsel investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 election has resigned, US media report.

BREAKING: Video of Vegas Shooter Finally Released, Showing How He Brought In the Guns
Free Thought Project – It’s been close to six months since Stephen Paddock allegedly rented a room inside the Mandalay Bay Casino Resort in Las Vegas and then opened fire on on thousands of innocent people, killing 58 or them and injuring hundreds of others. Since that tragic day, victims, media, activists, and citizens have been calling for the release of surveillance footage that shows Paddock inside the hotel and, until now, these demands have fallen on deaf ears.
In spite of the dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests by local media and lawsuits demanding the release the surveillance footage, somehow the New York Times was able to obtain the exclusive footage allegedly showing Paddock inside the hotel.
Economy & Business

US to temporarily exempt EU, 6 other economies from metal tariffs
RT – The EU and six other economies will be exempt at least temporarily from the steel and aluminum tariffs US President Donald Trump has imposed, a top US trade official said Thursday. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told a Senate committee that Trump authorized a “pause” in the imposition of the tariffs, which take effect Friday, AFP reported.

Energy & Environment

Major storm lightening up after pummeling parts of Northeast
CBS – The latest nor’easter rolled into New England Thursday as millions of others in the Northeast began to dig out from the storm that dumped more than a foot of snow in some places, knocked out power to tens of thousands of customers and had many wishing for more spring-like weather. Airlines cancelled thousands of flights.
“We’re supposed to be getting ready for Easter, not a nor’easter,” said 46-year-old Raeme Dempsey, as her 6-year-old daughter, Jadalynn, pulled her toward a Philadelphia park so they could see the trees blanketed in freshly fallen snow.
Major cities along the Interstate 95 corridor saw moderate snow amounts. Downtown Philadelphia got 7 inches and New York City’s Central Park recorded a little less than 7. Boston was expected to get even less:

Is It Fickle Mother Nature Or Determined Weather Geoengineering: Nor’easter No. 4 And Rainwater Analysis
Activist Post – As I write this, I’m wondering how much of the predicted 10-to-18 inch ‘snowfall’ our region will receive during the fourth Nor’easter in just short of three weeks during March 2018. People in this region are getting very antsy about the weather; some seem to be ‘flaking out’ about it; while others are trying to take it in stride. Hardly anything is moving on the roads and everyone is told to stay home. It seems like it’s an exercise in planned obedience to see just what can be effectuated in human behavior.

Mexico capital’s water crisis over crumbling infrastructure
Al Jazeera – Mexico City is home to 22 million people; their homes are built over what was a vast lake drained by Spanish settlers.
Shortages are getting worse, mainly due to the fact that the city is sinking, putting more strain on its crumbling water system.

Yellowstone Volcano: New Massive Magma Plume Discovered Underneath National Park
Infowars – The Yellowstone National Park is a complex system, believed to have come into existence thanks to a family of volcanic events that occurred millions of years ago. About 630,000 years ago, a massive volcano eruption rattled the area, spewing miles of ash and rock, which eventually created the Yellowstone caldera.

Science & Technology

Zuckerberg: ‘Sorry’ For ‘Major Breach of Trust’
Al Jazeera – The head of Facebook has apologised for the “major breach of trust” the social media platform committed, when it allowed personal information of 50 million users from being collected by a data mining company linked to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Health

Pilates, Not pills: Doctors are Writing Exercise Prescriptions
Care 2 – Family doctors are acknowledging that there’s only so much medicine can do, and sometimes a walk in the park is just what a person needs.
If your family doctor said you had to exercise for a set amount of time each day and wrote exactly what you had to do on a prescription pad, would you be more likely to follow those directions than if he or she simply said, “Lose weight”? This ‘prescription approach’ is gaining traction in the United States, where family physicians are finding that explicitly stating exercise goals for overweight and unhealthy patients is helping them to follow through.
In an article for the Washington Post, professor of family medicine Ranit Mishori describes a sample prescription that she might write for a patient with diabetes:
– Frequency: At least 3-4 days a week.
– Intensity: Exercise at a moderate level.
– Time: Exercise 30-60 minutes per day (all at once, or break it up into a few sessions of at least 10 minutes each).
– Type: Aerobic or rhythmic exercises using the large muscle groups (walking, cycling, swimming). Weights 2x week.

Fracking pollutes the water; chemicals contribute to breast cancer by causing uncontrolled cell division
Natural News – Laboratory mice are subject to many of the vulnerabilities that affect humans. So, when a recently-released study warns that female lab mice developed pre-cancerous growths in their mammary glands after they were exposed to high levels of chemicals used for fracking, it stands to reason there’s something toxic about those chemicals.
The study was implemented by researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst). They reported detecting changes in mammary gland development of female mice exposed to the chemicals used in unconventional oil and gas (UOG) extraction at levels environmentally relevant to humans.