California gets OK to force-feed some hunger-striking inmates
SACRAMENTO — California authorities won court approval on Monday, Aug. 19, to force-feed some prisoners on a hunger strike, after officials voiced concerns that inmates may have been coerced into refusing food in a protest against the state's solitary confinement policies.U.S. District Court Judge Thelton E. Henderson, responding...Obama unveils plan that aims to make college more affordable
Washington — President Barack Obama on Thursday, Aug. 22, proposed a new plan to tackle soaring higher education costs with a system that would rate colleges and universities, based on their value for the money students spend and tie those ratings to disbursement of federal student aid.The president, who has spent much of the summer...University suspends a fraternity over Facebook posts
MIAMI — Florida International University has suspended a fraternity over Facebook posts that referred to selling drugs and hazing new members, officials said.The Facebook posts were made in a "private" group, created by the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity chapter at FIU, The Miami Herald reported. An anonymous person then took screenshots of...Teen charged with killing kittens
Lake County, INDIANA — A 17-year-old Indiana boy is facing charges for allegedly hunting and killing three kittens with a bow and arrow, police said.The teen, whose name has not been released, allegedly posted photos of the dead kittens on Facebook Aug. 3, the Northwest Indiana Times reported."The photos are really disturbing," Lake...U.S. misprints 30 million new $100 bills
Washington — The U.S. is approaching the release date of its new $100 bills, but the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is facing an embarrassing problem: 30 million bills were incorrectly printed, and fixing them will cost taxpayers an estimated $3.79 million.The new $100 bills were designed to reduce counterfeiting and were scheduled...New Yorker arrested 29 times for transit crimes
New York - A New York City man arrested nearly 30 times over 30 years for posing as a subway worker or bus driver, at times piloting trains full of unsuspecting commuters, was sentenced to up to 5 years in prison on Thursday, Aug. 15, for his latest joyride.Darius McCollum, who has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a form of...Judge: N.Y. ‘stop & frisk’ policy violates the Constitution
NEW YORK — A federal judge found that stop-and-search tactics used by the New York Police Department have violated the constitutional rights of tens of thousands of citizens and are racist. He has called for a federal monitor to oversee reforms to the policy.Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled that police officers have been...
Prosecutors not allowed to see report on Fort Hood shooter
August 16th, 20130 FORT HOOD, Texas — A military judge blocked, on Wednesday, Aug. 14, prosecutors from seeing a mental health report on the U.S. Army psychiatrist who admitted killing 13 soldiers in a 2009 shooting rampage at a Texas army base, even though the suspect wanted to make the report public.The report revealed that Major Nidal Hasan, 42,...
Manning tells court he’s ‘sorry’ for secrets breach to WikiLeaks
August 16th, 20130 FORT MEADE, Maryland — U.S. soldier Bradley Manning on Wednesday, Aug. 14, told a military court "I'm sorry" for giving war logs and diplomatic secrets to the WikiLeaks website three years ago, the biggest breach of classified data in the nation's history."I am sorry that my actions hurt people. I'm sorry that they hurt the United...U.S. sues to block proposed airline merger
Washington — The Justice Department and several states have filed suit to block the $11 billion merger between American Airlines and US Airways, saying it would cut competition in the industry.The move on Tuesday, Aug. 13, effectively dragged to a halt the long-pending merger to create the world's largest airline as American...Poll: One in 10 Americans have taken drugs prescribed for others
WASHINGTON - One in 10 Americans admit to taking a prescription drug they have not been prescribed, and a quarter of those people have used them just to get high, according to an ongoing Reuters/Ipsos poll. While about six in ten Americans who used another person's prescriptions did so for pain relief, a fifth took them to sleep,...Two men charged in Miami with financing ‘foreign terrorist groups’
MIAMI — Two men were charged in federal court in Miami on Tuesday, Aug. 15, with providing financing and recruits to al-Qaeda and other foreign terrorist organizations fighting in Syria and Somalia.Gufran Ahmed Kauser Mohammed, a 30-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen born in India, and Mohamed Hussein Said, a 25-year-old Kenyan, were...White House highlights economic benefits of immigration reform
Washington — The White House said, on Tuesday Aug. 13, immigration reform is not only the right thing to do, it would also add significantly to the U.S. gross domestic product."Our country is stronger when everyone has a stake, everyone pays their taxes and fulfills their responsibilities, and everyone is equally invested in our...Adjusting to the new Iranian reality
As Hassan Rouhani was inaugurated Iran’s new president last weekend, there was self-referential optimism in Western policy circles about what his accession might portend. A substantial quorum in these circles sees Rouhani as perhaps someone with whom the West — to recall Margaret Thatcher’s 1984 assessment of rising Soviet leader...Two Kazakh students charged with obstruction in Boston bomb probe
A U.S. grand jury on Thursday indicted two students from Kazakhstan on obstruction of justice charges, alleging they helped hide evidence, related to the April Boston marathon bombing that killed three and injured 264.Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, both 19, were college friends of surviving bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.They......
Marine demoted for urinating on Taliban corpses
A U.S. Marine sergeant who was videotaped urinating on dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan has been demoted to the rank of corporal after pleading guilty, the Marine Corps has said.Sergeant Robert Richards was the last of eight Marines to be punished in connection with the incident, which took place on July 27, 2011, during a...CIA deputy director: Al-Qaeda replacing Assad is the biggest threat to U.S.
Washington — The second-in-command of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) says that the toppling of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria is the largest threat to United States national security and may help Al-Qaeda acquire chemical weapons.Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell said the prospect of the...Iran nominee seen as olive branch to United States
If Iran's president-elect wanted to signal his determination to rebuild relations with the United States and strike a "grand bargain," he could hardly do better than pick Mohammad Javad Zarif as his foreign minister.Iranian news agencies reported on Monday that Zarif, a former ambassador to the United Nations and Tehran's leading...Political developments activate the Mideast peace process
The Palestinians have been urging for peace talks for years. Surprisingly, a new round of negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis starts this week in Washington, DC. What has brought Israel’s hard line Prime Minister Netanyahu to the peace table?Possibly four recent political developments have softened the current Israeli......
Swift Aviation settles EEOC discrimination lawsuit
PHOENIX — Swift Aviation Services, Inc., a Phoenix aeronautical services company, will pay $50,000 and furnish other relief, in order to settle a lawsuit, filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The agency announced the decision this week.The EEOC claimed in its suit that Swift Aviation violated federal...Arrests made across metro-Detroit in nationwide prostitution sting
DETROIT — Arrests were recently made by federal agencies in cities across the country, including Detroit, as part of a nationwide prostitution sting. The FBI, along with other federal agencies, rescued over 100 children and teenagers, during an undercover operation that involved 76 cities across the country. In......
Netanyahu, Abbas to resume ‘Peace Process’ that never was
July 26th, 20130 The political peddlers, think-tank experts and media professionals are all back in full force. They want us to believe that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has done what others have failed to do. On his sixth trip to the Middle East during his post, and following intense shuttle diplomacy, likened to that of Henry Kissinger, Kerry...TSA will grope you less for $85
If full-body scanners and TSA pat-downs make you feel uncomfortable, you now have an alternate option – for the hefty price of $85.The Transportation Security Administration has launched a new program that will allow members to bypass regular airport security checkpoints. Those enrolled in the “trusted traveler” program, called TSA......