Whereas, on August 21, 2013, the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack in the suburbs of Damascus, Syria, killing more than 1,000 innocent Syrians;

Whereas these flagrant actions were in violation of international norms and the laws of war;

Whereas the United States and 188 other countries comprising 98 percent of the world's population are parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling or use of chemical weapons;

Whereas, in the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003, Congress found that Syria's acquisition of weapons of mass destruction threatens the security of the Middle East and the national security interests of the United States;

Whereas the United Nations Security Council, in Resolution 1540 (2004), affirmed that the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons constitutes a threat to international peace and security;

Whereas, the objective of the United States' use of military force in connection with this authorization should be to deter, disrupt, prevent, and degrade the potential for, future uses of chemical weapons or other weapons of mass destruction;

Whereas, the conflict in Syria will only be resolved through a negotiated political settlement, and Congress calls on all parties to the conflict in Syria to participate urgently and constructively in the Geneva process; and Whereas, unified action by the legislative and executive branches will send a clear signal of American resolve.

SEC. ___ AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES
(a) Authorization. -- The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in connection with the use of chemical weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in the conflict in Syria in order to --

(1) prevent or deter the use or proliferation (including the transfer to terrorist groups or other state or non-state actors), within, to or from Syria, of any weapons of mass destruction, including chemical or biological weapons or components of or materials used in such weapons; or

(2) protect the United States and its allies and partners against the threat posed by such weapons.

(b) War Powers Resolution Requirements. --

(1) Specific Statutory Authorization. -- Consistent with section 8(a)(1) of the War Powers Resolution, the Congress declares that this section is intended to constitute specific statutory authorization within the meaning of section 5(b) of the War Powers Resolution.

(2) Applicability of other requirements. -- Nothing in this joint resolution supersedes any requirement of the War Powers Resolution.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/31/us/obama-authorization-request-text/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/2f56238d194f4a309188a215de990ed9/WA--Legalizing-Marijuana-Wash

http://www.king5.com/news/marijuana/Two-Pot-Systems-221875611.html



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/15/washington-state-medical-marijuana_n_3283035.html

An outbreak of measles among unimmunized members of a Texas megachurch is fueling new health worries about pockets of vaccine-wary parents -- just as more than 50 million public school kids head back to class across the nation.

More possible measles cases are being reviewed in Tarrant County, Texas, where at least 21 people have been sickened this month at the Eagle Mountain International Church, whose ministers have been critical of vaccination. Local officials say several more cases of infections with fever and rash have been reported, but not confirmed.

“It’s concerning. It’s something we jump on,” said Russell Jones, a Texas state epidemiologist who’s been tracking the situation. “It could get into the schools.”

Public health officials say that the northeast Texas outbreak is just the latest in a small but growing number of places -- think San Diego, Calif., Boone and Hamilton counties, Ind., and, most recently, Brooklyn, N.Y. -- where vaccine resistance has sickened children and put the wider community at risk for potentially deadly infectious diseases.

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/texas-megachurch-newest-hot-spot-vaccine-rejection-8C11044898

Can hear them on CNN, described as a large crowd outside the White House.

A pickled human toe, the centrepiece of a bizarre Yukon drinking ritual, was swallowed last Saturday night in an apparent act of bravado by a departing American worker.

snip

Just before midnight, the man entered Dawson City’s Downtown Hotel and ordered a “Sourtoe cocktail,” a 40-year-old rite-of-passage in which a drink of the patron’s choice is served along with a preserved human toe.

Normally, the ritual calls for the drinker to merely touch the toe with their lips while downing the drink.

But, Mr. Lee said the man instead swished the toe into his mouth, washed it down with a beer chaser and then slapped $500 onto the bar — the Downtown Hotel’s going fine for toe-swallowing.

“I said ‘Where’s the toe?’ and he says ‘I swallowed it,’ and then immediately headed over to the bar and started bragging,” said Mr. Lee.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08/27/mysterious-american-worker-pays-500-to-swallow-toe-at-yukon-bar/

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d28_1377814804

Source: LA Times

A 235-foot-tall rocket carrying a top-secret spy satellite roared to life and blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, leaving a thick white plume as it cut across the morning sky.

The launch took place Wednesday at 11:03 a.m. PDT at the picturesque base, which is located along the Pacific Ocean.

After countdown, the Delta IV Heavy rocket's three main engines ignited and climbed into skies. The hydrogen-fueled engines — each roughly the size of a pickup truck — were guzzling nearly a ton of propellants per second to provide 17 million horsepower.

Although little is publicly known about what exactly the rocket will be carrying into space, analysts said it is probably a $1-billion high-powered spy satellite capable of snapping pictures detailed enough to distinguish the make and model of an automobile hundreds of miles below.

Wednesday’s mission, designated NROL-65, has been on schedule for months.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-biggest-rocket-launch-20130828,0,723303.story

An exotic-looking “big cat” is no longer roaming a northwest Detroit neighborhood.

Several residents called animal control officers after seeing the feline — by some reports described as nearly four feet tall — roaming the streets.

“It got out of its owner’s home about a month ago through a screened-in window. So, we have been out there day and night, trying to set traps out to get this cat,” Laura Wilhelm-Bruzek, with Paws for the Cause Feral Cat Rescue, told WWJ Newsradio 950.

Wilhelm-Bruzek said she spoke to reporters on Saturday who said the cat was killed.

“They gave me a picture of a cat that was deceased, that was shot by a neighbor. So, we already had a good suspicion that the cat was deceased,” she said.

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/08/27/big-cat-causing-stir-in-detroit-is-shot-dead/

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/08/25/200325/nsa-having-flashbacks-to-watergate.html#storylink=cpy

Source: France 24

British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Sunday warned that any evidence of a chemical attack by the Syrian regime may have already been destroyed.

"The fact is that much of the evidence could have been destroyed by that artillery bombardment," he cautioned during a press conference after Damascus gave its green light to a mission by UN inspectors.

Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20130825-syria-chemical-attack-evidence-may-have-been-destroyed-hague

EDINBURG—U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Rio Grande Valley Sector confiscated an estimated $14.3 million worth of marijuana in multiple seizures over Aug. 15-16.

Agents assigned to the Falfurrias Checkpoint made the largest seizure on Aug. 15. During an immigration inspection of the driver of a tractor-trailer, a Border Patrol K-9 detected the presence. Agents found more than 10,300 pounds of marijuana hidden inside the trailer.

Another large seizure occurred on Aug. 16 when agents assigned to the Rio Grande City Station spotted a truck traveling away from the Rio Grande. When the driver of the pickup spotted Border Patrol agents and a helicopter from the Office of Air and Marine, he made an abrupt U-turn and sped back to the river.

At the river’s edge the driver and a passenger abandoned the truck and crossed the river to Mexico. Inside the vehicle agents found more than 1,500 pounds of marijuana.

snip

So far for fiscal year 2013, agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector have seized more than 700,000 pounds of marijuana.

http://www.progresstimes.net/news/general-interest/4893-border-patrol-agents-seize-nearly-9-tons-of-marijuana-in-2-days.html