July 24, 2015

Shooter John Russell Houser of Phenix City, AL has Tea Party Nation ties.

July 23, 2015

China may bring in 'two-child policy' to tackle demographic timebomb

Source: The Guardian

Thirty-five years after enacting draconian birth control rules blamed for millions of forced abortions and the creation of a demographic “timebomb”, China could be on the verge of introducing a two-child policy. The new regulation, under which all Chinese couples would be allowed to have two children, could be implemented “as soon as the end of the year if everything goes well”, a government source was quoted as saying by the China Business News.

The highly controversial and often brutally enforced one-child policy was introduced by China’s Communist leaders in 1980 amid fears of a catastrophic population explosion. The government credits it with preventing 400 million births, but the human cost has been immense, with forced sterilisations and abortions, infanticide, and a dramatic gender imbalance that means millions of men will never find female partners.

In 2012 – in one of the most shocking recent cases of human rights abuses related to the policy – a 23-year-old woman from Shaanxi province in north-west China was abducted by family planning officials and forced to have an abortion seven months into the pregnancy.

Liang Zhongtang, a demographer from the Shanghai Academy of Social Science, said the policy should have been abolished long ago. “The core issue is not about one child or two children. It’s about reproductive freedom. It’s about basic human rights. In the past, the government failed to grasp the essence of the issue,” he said.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/23/china-may-adopt-two-child-policy-this-year-as-demographic-timebomb-looms

July 20, 2015

Probe so far finds no ties between Chattanooga shooter, ISIS

Source: CBS

U.S. investigators have not found any significant evidence that Chattanooga shooter Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeezwas directly recruited or directly radicalized by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), sources tell CBS News.

Technicians at the FBI Lab in Quantico, Virginia, continue to go through Abdulazeez's computer and cell phone but nothing major has been detected yet.

"Nothing stands out," one official told CBS News, speaking on condition of anonymity.

<>

The FBI is also investigating the 24-year-old shooter's medical records - family and friends say Abdulazeez was depressed and was on medication at some point.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chattanooga-shooting-probe-no-isis-ties-muhammad-youssef-abdulazeez/

July 13, 2015

Man recounts saving dog with mouth taped shut and legs taped together.

July 9, 2015

FDA Strengthens Heart Safety Warnings on Painkillers

Source: NBC

The Food and Drug Administration is strengthening its warnings about painkillers like ibuprofen, saying they do raise the risk of heart attack or stroke.

People should think carefully about taking these drugs, both over-the-counter versions and prescription pills, the FDA says. It's asking manufacturers to change the labels.

"They used to say they might cause risk of heart attack or stroke. Now we are saying they do cause increased risk of heart attack and stroke," FDA spokesman Eric Pahon told NBC News.

<>

"FDA is strengthening an existing warning in prescription drug labels and over-the-counter (OTC) Drug Facts labels to indicate that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can increase the chance of a heart attack or stroke, either of which can lead to death," the agency said in a statement.

"Those serious side effects can occur as early as the first few weeks of using an NSAID, and the risk might rise the longer people take NSAIDs. (Although aspirin is also an NSAID, this revised warning doesn't apply to aspirin.)"

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/health/heart-health/fda-strengthens-heart-safety-warnings-painkillers-n389516

July 9, 2015

Exxon knew of climate change in 1981, email says – but it funded deniers for 27 more years

Source: The Guardian

A newly unearthed missive from Lenny Bernstein, a climate expert with the oil firm for 30 years, shows concerns over high presence of carbon dioxide in enormous gas field in south-east Asia factored into decision not to tap it


ExxonMobil, the world’s biggest oil company, knew as early as 1981 of climate change – seven years before it became a public issue, according to a newly discovered email from one of the firm’s own scientists. Despite this the firm spent millions over the next 27 years to promote climate denial.

The email from Exxon’s in-house climate expert provides evidence the company was aware of the connection between fossil fuels and climate change, and the potential for carbon-cutting regulations that could hurt its bottom line, over a generation ago – factoring that knowledge into its decision about an enormous gas field in south-east Asia. The field, off the coast of Indonesia, would have been the single largest source of global warming pollution at the time.

“Exxon first got interested in climate change in 1981 because it was seeking to develop the Natuna gas field off Indonesia,” Lenny Bernstein, a 30-year industry veteran and Exxon’s former in-house climate expert, wrote in the email. “This is an immense reserve of natural gas, but it is 70% CO2”, or carbon dioxide, the main driver of climate change.
Rockefeller family tried and failed to get ExxonMobil to accept climate change
Read more

However, Exxon’s public position was marked by continued refusal to acknowledge the dangers of climate change, even in response to appeals from the Rockefellers, its founding family, and its continued financial support for climate denial. Over the years, Exxon spent more than $30m on thinktanks and researchers that promoted climate denial, according to Greenpeace.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/08/exxon-climate-change-1981-climate-denier-funding

July 8, 2015

EU Tells Tsipras the Party’s Over as Euro Exit Door Swings Open

Source: Bloomberg

After five months of drama, false dawns and unpleasant surprises, Europe’s leaders are finally ready to show Alexis Tsipras the exit.

Behind the doors of the Justus Lipsius building in the heart of the political district in Brussels, the euro-region’s leaders rounded on the Greek prime minister for destabilizing the currency union before Germany’s Angela Merkel emerged to deliver an official ultimatum.

In a tense and at times emotional meeting, Tsipras’s European peers told him he’d failed to appreciate the efforts the continent’s voters and taxpayers had made to help the Greek people and blamed him for escalating tensions across the region. Six officials agreed to share their knowledge of the private talks while asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the historical moment.

“Party time at the expense of others in Greece has come to an end,” Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said. “Europe and the euro area are surely unprepared to pay for the irresponsible behavior of the new Greek government.”

Afterward in public comments, the leaders competed to find the harshest language to describe Tsipras’s approach and its likely consequences. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said a “miracle” would be needed to keep Greece in the euro-region, while Malta’s Joseph Muscat said the 40-year-old had created an “enormous trust-gap” with his European counterparts.


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-08/eu-tells-tsipras-the-party-s-over-as-euro-exit-door-swings-open

---

There's quite a lot more at the link above. The Bloomberg article authors seems to be of a mind the Grexit is to be the end, and sooner rather than later.

July 8, 2015

China stocks tumble again after premier Li Keqiang fails to mention crisis

Source: The Guardian

Hundreds of Chinese companies suspended dealings in their shares in a bid to arrest a frenzy of selling on China’s main stock markets, which have lost more than a quarter of their value since June.

The move, considered by many analysts to be another stumbling response to a full-blown share price crash, sparked a nervous reaction in commodity markets and sent copper prices to a six-year low.

Beijing has supported a series of market operations to halt a sharp decline in share values on the Shanghai and Shenzen exchanges over the past four weeks, but each one has been criticised for failing to restore market confidence.

Chinese shares fell on Tuesday after premier Li Keqiang’s failure to mention the deepening market crisis in a statement on the economy. Before the market opened, Li said in comments on a government website that China had the confidence and ability to deal with challenges faced by its economy. But he had nothing to say about the three-week plunge that has knocked about 30% off Chinese shares since mid-June.



Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/07/china-stocks-tumble-again-after-premier-li-keqiang-fails-to-mention-crisis

July 2, 2015

IMF says Greece needs extra €60bn in funds and debt relief

Source: The Guardian

The International Monetary Fund has electrified the referendum debate in Greece after it conceded that the crisis-ridden country needs up to €60bn (£42bn) of extra funds over the next three years and large-scale debt relief to create “a breathing space” and stabilise the economy.

With days to go before Sunday’s knife-edge referendum that the country’s creditors have cast as a vote on whether it wants to keep the euro, the IMF revealed a deep split with Europe as it warned that Greece’s debts were “unsustainable”.

Fund officials said they would not be prepared to put a proposal for a third Greek bailout to the Washington-based organisation’s board unless it included both a commitment to economic reform and debt relief.

According to the IMF, Greece should have a 20-year grace period before making any debt repayments and final payments should not take place until 2055. It would need €10bn to get through the next few months and a further €50bn after that.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/02/imf-greece-needs-extra-50bn-euros

July 1, 2015

Another Historically Black Church in South Carolina Burns

The last time (1995) it was burned to the ground by two Ku Klux Klan members. 20-years later and it's burned once again There's so much I would like to add here, but I don't yet know if this is an arson. I will say this could well be a catalyst to garnering the media attention to the recent burnings of black churches. I understand two of those churches were possible accidents (a tree limb falling on electrical wires, and one a possible lightening strike), but that does not take anything away from the other four which last I knew of were being investigated as arson. There may be more I've missed this week. I've been trying to stay on top of the issue, but it's not as readily reported in the media as the things they think they can twist about to lure in hordes of "shocked" readers/viewers.