Eternity News Now

Connecticut would become the first U.S. state to allow law enforcement agencies to use drones equipped with deadly weapons if a bill opposed by civil libertarians becomes law. The legislation, approved overwhelmingly by the state legislature's judiciary committee on Wednesday, would ban so-called weaponized drones in the state but exempts agencies involved in law enforcement. It now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration.   Read more .

Japan's whaling fleet returned home Friday after killing 333 whales in the Antarctic, achieving its goal for the second year under a revised research whaling program. The Fisheries Agency said the five-ship fleet finished its four-month expedition without major interference from anti-whaling activists who have attempted to stop it in the past.   Read more .

Transportation officials in Georgia are scrambling to cope with a crisis, after a huge fire caused a bridge on Interstate 85 to collapse in Atlanta on Thursday night. Gov. Nathan Deal has declared a state of emergency, and with the heavily used road closed in both directions, drivers are being told to find other options — from detours to mass transit. The shutdown affects a roughly 3-mile portion of I-85, blocking a major artery that runs through the heart of Atlanta.  Read more .

The amount of crude oil that spewed near Belfield, North Dakota from the ruptured Belle Fourche pipeline in December was vastly underestimated. The original estimate was around 176,000 gallons of oil. After further review, pipeline operator True Companies now reports about 12,615 barrels (529,830 gallons) of oil spilled... read more .

Maryland is on track to become the third state to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for oil and natural gas, after the Senate voted 35-10 on Monday for a measure already approved by the House. The bill is now headed to Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who is in favor of a statewide fracking ban.   Read more .

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has triggered the formal two-year process of negotiations that will lead to Britain leaving the European Union  after 44 years in a process popularly known as Brexit. A letter invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and officially notifying the EU of Britain's decision to withdraw from the bloc was hand-delivered to... read more .

Arab leaders have demanded a two-state solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict amid increased unease over the stance of the United States under the administration of President Donald Trump. The heads of Arab League states - attending a one-day summit beside the Dead Sea in Jordan - did not publicly refer to Trump or his statements on Wednesday, but they stressed their own continued backing for an independent Palestinian state.   Read more .

Labor leaders at Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) luxury Audi brand have asked top management to assign production of an all-electric model to the carmaker's main plant in Germany, concerned they might lose out as electric cars gain in importance. Audi will next year start building its first mass-produced electric model, the e-tron quattro sport-utility vehicle, at a plant in Brussels, together with batteries that will... read more.

Major nuclear power company Westinghouse, a U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Toshiba, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday in a massive blow to the industry. The filing marked "a defining moment in the decades-long downward spiral of the global nuclear power industry," wrote Greenpeace Japan in a statement.   Read more .

Ahmed Kathrada, a lifelong comrade of Nelson Mandela and one of the iconic figures of South Africa’s freedom struggle, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 87. Kathrada began his resistance to oppression more than 70 years ago and did not stop fighting for the rights of people all over the world until the short illness that took his life.   Read more .

The 100-year-old San Francisco woman who spent her last years in a bitter eviction battle with her landlords in the Western Addition, died from health complications. Iris Canada suffered a stroke over the weekend and died at an undisclosed hospital, the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco announced Tuesday.   Read more .

Tropical Cyclone Debbie is making landfall across the coast of northeast Australia, packing sustained winds of 185 kph (114 mph) with gusts reaching more than 262 kph (163 mph). The storm is lashing the Queensland coast with torrential rain which, when combined with a dangerous storm tide, could cause major flooding, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.  Read more .

China's Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) has bought a 5 percent stake in U.S. electric car maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) for $1.78 billion, the latest investment by a Chinese internet company in the potentially lucrative market for self-driving vehicles and related services. Tencent's investment, revealed in a U.S. regulatory filing, provides Tesla with an additional cash cushion as it prepares to launch its mass-market Model 3. Tesla's shares were up 2.9 percent at $277.03 in midday trading on Tuesday... read more .

Since President Donald Trump's election, monthly lectures on social justice at the 600-seat Gothic chapel of New York's Union Theological Seminary have been filled to capacity with crowds three times what they usually draw. In January, the 181-year-old Upper Manhattan graduate school, whose architecture evokes London's Westminster Abbey, turned away about 1,000 people from a lecture on mass incarceration. In the nine years that Reverend Serene Jones has served as its president, she has never seen such crowds.   Read more .

The Pentagon, facing accusations that a coalition air strike may have killed scores of civilians in the Iraqi city of Mosul, said on Monday it was not loosening its rules of engagement in the fight against Islamic State but that resources to investigate claims were limited.   Read more .

The alert from Fox News went out at 5:30 p.m. Sunday. “PRESIDENT TRUMP SPENDING WEEKEND WORKING AT THE WHITE HOUSE,” the chyron announced, under an image of the White House presumably captured just minutes before. The timing of the tweet alert was curious: After all, the weekend was nearly over. “[T]his is like when you start to do your homework when you hear the garage door opening,” one Twitter user noted. And, as it turned out, the announcement wasn't entirely true.   Read more .

The United States, Britain and France are among almost 40 countries that will not join talks on a nuclear weapons ban treaty starting at the United Nations on Monday, said U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Haley told reporters the countries skipping the negotiations are instead committed to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which entered into force in 1970 and is aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology.   Read more .

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee repeated his call Sunday for an independent probe of possible Russian ties with the Donald Trump campaign. “There are enough questions that have now been called, that have been raised where I think the establishment of a commission would give the country a lot of confidence that at least one body was doing this in a way that was completely removed from any political considerations,’’ California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on CBS’ Face the Nation.   Read more.

The annual public letter from Bill and Melinda Gates has become a much-celebrated event in the global development calendar. But lost in the excitement around this year’s letter is the fact that it uses 6,000 words to paint a picture that is so selective in its use of facts that it amounts to little more than propaganda for a failing aid and development industry, and indeed a failing ideology. And the 2017 letter is especially striking for just how out-of-sync it feels ...  Read more.

Amid reports Saturday that President Donald Trump would spend his afternoon "holding meetings" at a golf course he owns in Virginia, grassroots support is growing for a new bill introduced late this week that would force the president to provide visitor logs for Trump-owned properties where he conducts official government business.   Read more.

Londa Brown and Darlene Copeland, a pair of hairstylists from Chicago's South Side, have spent so many hours listening to their customers talk about the ups and downs of their lives that the two jokingly refer to themselves as therapists. But along with amusing tales, their customers also share troubling stories of relationships that have turned violent. This has included signs of abuse ... read more .

Iran has imposed sanctions on 15 U.S. companies for alleged human rights violations and cooperating with Israel, the state news agency IRNA reported on Sunday, in a tit-for-tat reaction to a move by Washington.   Read more .

The ex-European Parliament president has vowed to tackle gender pay gaps, calling them one of the greatest injustices. He further discussed defense spending, executive pay and tax cuts in a German newspaper interview.   Read more .

The largest bank in Norway, DNB, has announced that it has sold its assets in the Dakota Access pipeline. The news follows the delivery of 120,000 signatures gathered by SumOfUs.org to DNB by Greenpeace Norway and others urging the bank and other financial institutions to pull finances for the project. DNB recently indicated that it is reconsidering the loan it provided, which amounts to 10 percent of the total funding.   Read more.

As if the Dakota Access Pipeline project didn’t already have enough problems, Norwegian bank DNB, is rethinking its earlier decision to doll out $342.36 million in loans to construct the pipeline—a figure that represents about 10 percent of the project’s total, according to Norwegian daily Aftenposten.   Read more .

White House officials insisted Sunday that the relationship between President Donald Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan is strong, even as Republican infighting over the failure to repeal Obamacare exploded into the open over the weekend. After Trump urged his Twitter followers Saturday to watch Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro — who opened her show last night with six-minute plea for Speaker Paul Ryan to step down — Washington was abuzz with speculation about a Trump-Ryan rift.   Read more .

The demonstration was large but peaceful — 2,000 flag-waving supporters of President Trump walking and chanting along Bolsa Chica State Beach in California. Then, they caught sight of the counterprotesters. The melee that followed Saturday was captured in a profanity-filled video that quickly spread across the nation... read more .

Hundreds of people, including a key opposition leader, were arrested in Russia on Sunday as thousands participated in unsanctioned protests against corruption and the anti-democratic tendencies of the ruling government. A reported 500 people were detained in Moscow alone, where opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has accused both President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of corruption, was also taken into custody.   Read more .

Israel-based entrepreneur Matan Uziel saw a notification he’d never seen before pop up on YouTube’s backend—the part of the site where creators upload their videos. “I saw a yellow dollar sign. At first I didn’t understand what it was,” Uziel says. “Then I moved my cursor over it. I saw it meant my video was not advertiser-friendly.”   Read more .

The frontrunner in France's presidential election, Emmanuel Macron, received yet another boost to his candidacy on Sunday when nine lawmakers from a center-right party allied with conservative rival Francois Fillon decided to rally behind him.   Read more .

The assistant finance director at the Seminole County Clerk of Court and Comptroller’s Office was placed on administrative leave Monday after posting Facebook comments stating Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala “should be tarred and feathered if not hung from a tree.”   Read more .

The NAACP Florida State Conference expressed its support for State Attorney Aramis Ayala and its opposition to capital punishment Saturday morning during a news conference in Orange County. Ayala announced last week that she won’t pursue the death penalty in murder suspect Markeith Loyd’s case or any other during her tenure.   Read more .

Kaepernick managed the 17th-best quarterback rating last season among starters while coming back from injury. His touchdown percentage was 13th best, better than Washington’s Kirk Cousins, who wound up in the Pro Bowl and with a new franchise-tag contract worth $24 million next season. His interception percentage was sixth, just behind Aaron Rodgers and just ahead of MVP Matt Ryan. And Kaepernick did all of that on a team that was abysmal because of disarray in its ownership and front office, as well as its sidelines.   Read more .

President Donald Trump suffered a stunning political setback on Friday in a Congress controlled by his own party when Republican leaders pulled legislation to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, a major 2016 election campaign promise of the president and his allies.   Read more .

Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed the "great importance" of ties between his country and France as he met French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen at the Kremlin on Friday, Russian state-run news agency Tass reported. Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that Russia was not seeking to... read more .

President Trump hailed the State Department's approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline as a big win for American workers. "It's a great day for American jobs," Trump said from the Oval Office on Friday after the State Department issued a permit allowing the pipeline proposed by TransCanada to go forward.   Read more .

Last week, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick made headlines when he helped get a Turkish Airlines plane to fly to Somalia to deliver food, water and assistance to the drought-stricken country. A few days later, President Donald Trump took the time during a rally in Kentucky to address (brag about?) the fact that Colin Kaepernick still doesn’t have a job.   Read more .

There’s been a lot of talk about just who was hurt and helped by Obamacare and who will profit or be imperiled by the next phase of health care legislation. Yet health insurance executives have been curiously silent about the House GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. While the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association, among many others, have come out against it, insurers have clearly made a strategic decision not to show their hand.   Read more .

A former Russian lawmaker who became a vociferous critic of Moscow following his recent move to Ukraine was shot and killed Thursday in Kiev, prompting harsh words between the two neighboring countries. Denis Voronenkov, who had testified to Ukrainian investigators and criticized Russian policies after his move to Kiev last fall, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman near the entrance of an upscale hotel in the Ukrainian capital.   Read more .

The Memphis mayor's office is pitching in to help figure out the future of the dilapidated house where soul singer Aretha Franklin was born, a lawyer said Thursday. Alan Crone, special counsel to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, told a judge that a working group from the mayor's office plans to assist other stakeholders concerned about the preservation and future use of the historic home.   Read more .

An annual African trade summit in California had no African attendees this year after at least 60 people were denied visas, according to event leaders. The African Global Economic and Development Summit, a three-day conference at the University of Southern California (USC), typically brings delegations from across Africa to meet with business leaders in the US in an effort to foster partnerships. But this year, every single African citizen who requested a visa was rejected... read more .

The top Democrat on one of the congressional committees investigating ties between Donald Trump and Russia has raised “grave doubt” over the viability of the inquiry after its Republican chairman shared information with the White House and not their committee colleagues.   Read more .

The coal industry is in "freefall" worldwide, the latest annual survey from environmental groups Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and CoalSwarm finds. "The staggering uptick in clean energy and reduction in the new coal plant pipeline is even more proof that coal isn't just bad for public health and the environment—it's bad for the bottom line," said Nicole Ghio... read more .

In an extraordinary move, the chairman of the House panel investigating Russian interference in the presidential election bypassed his own committee Wednesday to brief President Trump on information related to U.S. surveillance of his transition team.   Read more .

The ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday said the "beyond irregular" behavior of the committee's Republican chairman has "underscored the imperative of an independent investigation" into Russian interference in last year's election—comments that capped off a series of explosive Capitol Hill developments surrounding a controversy that refuses to die.   Read more .

Michael Moore called on Democrats Wednesday to “declare a national emergency” and “cease all business” in Congress until an independent investigation into President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia is complete.   Read more .

The U.S.-led coalition targeting the Islamic State (ISIS) is being blamed for an airstrike on a school where families had sought shelter near the northern Syrian town of Raqqa. The monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 33 people died as a result of the Tuesday strike.   Read more .

Four people were killed and at least 20 injured in London on Wednesday after a car plowed into pedestrians and an attacker stabbed a policeman close to the British parliament, in what police called a terrorist incident. The dead included the assailant and the policeman he stabbed, while the other two victims were among the pedestrians hit by the car as it tore along Westminster Bridge, which is right next to parliament.   Read more .

Dozens of California communities have experienced recent rates of childhood lead poisoning that surpass those of Flint, Michigan, with one Fresno locale showing rates nearly three times higher, blood testing data obtained by Reuters shows. The data shows how lead poisoning affects even a state known for its environmental advocacy, with high rates of childhood exposure found in a swath of the Bay Area and downtown Los Angeles.  Read more .

Germany is embarking on an innovative project to turn a hard coal mine into a giant battery that can store surplus solar and wind energy and release it when supplies are lean.   Read more .

Why can't Colin Kaepernick get a job? Is it the stink on his name from the way he chose to make a social statement last season during the national anthem?   Read more .

The U.S. failed to show up to a human rights hearing in an "unprecedented show of disrespect to the international community," the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said Tuesday. In a surprise move, the government ditched a hearing with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ... read more .

 “Amazing news,” a proud Colin Kaepernick announced in a video on Saturday. “Turkish Airlines granted us an airplane to fly to Somalia, a 60 ton cargo plane, so we can fly there with food with water for these people. Now we’ve started a GoFundMe page to allow anyone to help us donate food, donate water.”   Read more .

On Monday during a rally in Kentucky designed to pull together supporters for the Republican health care plan, President Donald Trump seemed to try to take credit for Colin Kaepernick’s career seemingly coming to an end. Specifically, Trump pointed out a recent report that no NFL team would sign the free agent because they feared a backlash on Twitter by the president.   Read more .

A U.S. appeals court on Saturday shut down a last-ditch effort to put a stop to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), allowing oil to flow as early as Monday. The appeals court affirmed a lower court's ruling last week that decided against an emergency injunction, sought by the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes, which would have ...  Read more .

When Justice Antonin Scalia died last year, giant corporations and their right-wing buddies spent millions of dollars to keep the Supreme Court seat open so that Donald Trump could fill the vacancy. It was only the latest step in their campaign to tilt our courts in favor of big corporations and the wealthy. Now, the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court is their reward. Anyone who believes in a neutral Supreme Court guided by equal justice for all should oppose this nomination.   Read more .

David Rockefeller, the U.S. banker, philanthropist, presidential adviser and heir to one of history’s most fabled fortunes, has died. At 101, he was the world’s oldest billionaire. He died Monday at his home in Pocantico Hills, New York, according to an emailed statement from Fraser P. Seitel, a family spokesman. The cause was congestive heart failure.   Read more .

Judges will be reassigned to 12 sanctuary cities in a bid to speed up the deportation of undocumented persons with outstanding criminal charges across the country, according to officials at the U.S. Department of Justice.   Read more .

During the last three years of the Bush administration, I reported on the military budget, following the supplemental spending bills for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since Congress has not formally declared war since World War II, these budget bills were the mechanism that was keeping our wars going.   Read more .

Ride services company Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] has been thrust deeper into turmoil with the departure of company president Jeff Jones, a marketing expert hired to help soften its often abrasive image.   Read more .

Finance ministers for the Group of 20 (G20), which comprises the world's biggest economies, dropped a joint statement mentioning funding for the fight against climate change after pressure from the United States and Saudi Arabia.   Read more .

Chuck Berry, who duck-walked his way into the pantheon of rock 'n' roll pioneers as one of its most influential guitarists and lyricists, creating raucous anthems that defined the genre's sound and heartbeat, died on Saturday at his Missouri home. He was 90.   Read more .

OVER THE COURSE OF A CAREER SPANNING SIX DECADES, Chuck Berry, arguably the most important figure in the development of rock & roll, has established a few firm rules he lives by. Among them: There will be no performance unless payment has been received in full, in cash. No limousines and no drivers: Mr. Berry prefers to drive himself while on tour. The opening band may not mention the name Chuck Berry during its set. And finally, never trust a journalist. Because of Rule Four, not only does Berry turn down most interview offers, but he has been known to chase journalists off the grounds of Berry Park, his estate near St. Louis.   Read more.

A Reuters review found that at least 63 individuals with Russian passports or addresses have bought at least $98.4 million worth of property in seven Trump-branded luxury towers in southern Florida.   Read more .

J.C. Penney said Friday it will close 138 stores across the U.S. and is leaving some smaller markets where it's operated stores for decades. With its remaining 876 stores, Penney will still have at least one location in 49 states and Puerto Rico.   Read more .

Claude Lewis, 82, of Cherry Hill, a distinguished journalist who made history as the first person of color to write a regular newspaper column in Philadelphia and inspired generations of African Americans to follow him into the profession, died Thursday, March 16.   Read mor e.

Claude Lewis, co-founder of the National Association of Black Journalists passed away from complications of diabetes at age 82 on Thursday according to the organization.   Read more .

The U.S. Justice Department on Friday said it delivered documents to congressional committees responding to their request for information that could shed light on President Donald Trump's claims that former President Barack Obama ordered U.S. agencies to spy on him.   Read more.

People have a tendency to perceive black men as larger and more threatening than similarly sized white men, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. "Unarmed black men are disproportionately more likely to be shot and killed by police, and often these killings are accompanied by explanations that cite the physical size of the person shot," said lead author John Paul Wilson, PhD, of Montclair State University.   Read more .

Earlier this week, the State Department announced that representatives from infamous anti-LGBTQ hate group the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM) and from the far-right Heritage Foundation will represent the U.S. at a United Nations conference on women's rights later this month:  Read more .

Trump's head of the Department of Health and Human Services traded stocks of health-related companies while working on legislation affecting the firms. A source says Bharara was overseeing an investigation. The White House didn't immediately comment.   Read more .

The United Nations praised Iran's "exemplary" refugee resettlement program this week, saying the country's decades-long effort to house approximately 3 million displaced Afghans was "a story that's not told often enough."   Read more .

“Wear green on St. Patrick’s Day or get pinched.” That pretty much sums up the Irish-American “curriculum” that I learned when I was in school. Yes, I recall a nod to the so-called Potato Famine, but it was mentioned only in passing.   Read more .

The leaders of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee issued a bipartisan statement on Thursday rejecting President Donald Trump's assertion that the Obama administration tapped his phones during the 2016 presidential campaign. The top Republican in Congress, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, added his voice to a growing chorus of lawmakers saying there was no sign of a wiretap.   Read more .

Prosecutors announced Thursday that they would not bring any criminal charges against New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) following parallel state and federal investigations into how he and others raised funds.   Read more .

Adversaries of Marine Le Pen expressed relief on Thursday after her ally Geert Wilders won fewer seats than expected in a Dutch election, but analysts warned against reading too much into the result ahead of France's tight presidential race.   Read more .

While Irish Prime Minster Enda Kenny traveled to the White House to take part in a traditional "shamrock ceremony" with his American counterpart on Thursday, Irish lawmaker Aodhán Ó'Ríordáin and other critics called on Irish-Americans to take a stand against President Donald Trump and his xenophobic policies.   Read more .

Betsy DeVos once called public schools a “dead end,” but now that she’s U.S. Secretary of Education, she’s suddenly all for them.   Read more .

A community orchestra performance, a new work from an emerging playwright, art therapy for a returning veteran, local library classes in Braille, free standardized-test preparation, and Bert and Ernie. Thousands of such programs could be gutted under President Donald Trump's proposed budget. Read more .

There are three letters that best describe a presidential budget plan: D.O.A. Presidents go through the motions of putting together a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. They give it snappy titles like “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again.” They send it to Congress with great fanfare — and then, generally speaking, it gets discarded and Congress writes its own plan.   Read mor e.

President Trump released his much-anticipated budget on Thursday, and the funding cuts are being dissected left and right. There are 19 federal agencies that have the distinction of facing a 100 percent cut — i.e. extinction. The cuts to these agencies total about $3 billion... read mor e.

A heavily armed student opened fire and wounded eight people Thursday at a high school in the southern French city of Grasse, officials said.   Read more .

A teenage student opened fire on Thursday at a high school in southeastern France injuring three people, including the headmaster, in an attack carried out after he had watched American-style mass shooting videos, the interior ministry said.   Read more .

During the campaign Donald Trump pledged that “on day one” as president, he would label China a currency manipulator. Then he didn’t. Then China granted Trump’s businesses lucrative trademarks he has been seeking.   Read more .

Tens of thousands of people have signed a global ‘thank you’ letter to the Netherlands for voting against far-right politician Geert Wilders. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s VVD party fended off the challenge from his populist rival, and hailed it as a victory putting a halt to resurgent nationalism.   Read more .

A new United Nations report accuses Israel of having established "an apartheid regime that oppresses and dominates the Palestinian people as a whole". The publication comes amid renewed debate about whether, through its settlement policy and rejection of Palestinian self-determination, the Israeli government is creating... read more .

A federal judge in Hawaii issued a nationwide order Wednesday evening blocking President Trump’s ban on travel from parts of the Muslim world, dealing a stinging blow to the White House and signaling that Mr. Trump will have to account in court for his heated rhetoric about Islam.   Read more ,.

The Dutch political establishment appeared Wednesday to fend off a challenge from anti-Muslim firebrand Geert Wilders, according to initial vote counts, a victory in a closely watched national election that heartened centrist leaders across Europe who are fearful of populist upsets in their own nations.   Read more.

Conservative Dutch Prime Minster Mark Rutte has staved off a challenge from his far-right rival in an election widely seen as an indicator of populist sentiment in Europe, exit polls indicated Wednesday.   Read more .

These days Christine Taylor probably thinks twice before confiding in medical personnel. In 2010, when Taylor was 22 and pregnant, she fell down a flight of stairs and sought treatment at an Iowa hospital. During her physical exam she confided to hospital staff that she felt ambivalent about being pregnant. Her husband had recently abandoned her and ... read more .

While President Trump sat down for a sumptuous meal at the White House on Tuesday, March 14 with Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, millions of Yemenis are going hungry thanks to Trump’s lunch guest.   Read mor e.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes says he doesn't believe "there was an actual tap of Trump Tower," contrary to claims made by President Trump.   Read more .

The new American Health Care Act has been unveiled, and critics are calling it more flawed even than the Obamacare it was meant to replace. Dubbed "Ryancare" or "Trumpcare" (over the objection of White House staff), the Republican health care bill is under attack from left and right, with even conservative leaders calling it "Obamacare Lite", "bad policy", a "warmed-over substitute," and "dead on arrival."   Read more .

Eric Garner was approached by police on the sidewalk for illegally selling loose cigarettes. NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo used a chokehold on Garner. A bystander video shows Garner saying "I can't breathe" 11 times before he died.   Read more .

A 911 dispatcher who took a call that led to a white police officer's fatal shooting of a 12-year-old black boy outside a recreation center has been suspended for eight days. Police Chief Calvin Williams found in a disciplinary letter dated March 10 that Constance Hollinger violated protocol... read more .

In a striking repudiation of President Trump, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, a Republican, said on Wednesday that he had seen no indication of Mr. Trump's claim on Twitter that former President Barack Obama wiretapped his phones in Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign.   Read more .

Over the weekend, documentary filmmaker Jason Pollock debuted his movie Stranger Fruit at SXSW, and with it previously unreleased surveillance footage of black teenager Michael Brown at a grocery store. The video shows Brown just hours before he was shot and killed by then–Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson in August 2014.   Read more .

A new video of Michael Brown is sparking protests in Ferguson, Missouri. The video claims to discredit the idea that the teen robbed a store prior to his interaction with police in 2014.   Read more .

Ninety percent of the minke whales hunted and killed each year in Norwegian waters are female and "almost all" of them are pregnant, according to a documentary aired earlier this month on NRK, a government-owned public broadcasting company.   Read more .

The United States rarely blames foreign governments for hacks targeting US corporations. Yet in a Wednesday presser, the Department of Justice did just that — announcing indictments against two agents of the Russian FSB spy agency, Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, for a 2014 breach of Yahoo that got access to 500 million users’ data.   Read more.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flew to Asia accompanied by only one journalist on his aircraft, a reporter from a website founded by former Republican political operatives, in a departure from decades of practice.   Read more.

Like President Trump who regularly tweets messages to his audience, the Army's Recruiting Command has an "alternative" channel to communicate with potential recruits. Enter Archie Masibay, SGT,US Army.   Read more .

For the next two decades, the US Navy will inject hundreds of thousands of pounds of flares and billions of metal-coated glass fibers into ocean waters off the coasts of Washington and Oregon.   Read more .

Highlighting the hypocrisy of members of Congress who benefit from large healthcare subsidies at the same time that they work to kick millions of Americans off of their health coverage, a man who lost his father to cancer because he was uninsured has created a petition demanding an end to those subsidies for lawmakers.   Read more .

Seventeen congressional Republicans signed a resolution on Wednesday vowing to seek "economically viable" ways to stave off global warming, challenging the stated views of President Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax.   Read more .

The New York attorney general has accused Secretary of State Rex Tillerson of using the pseudonym "Wayne Tracker" to send emails related to climate change while serving as CEO of Exxon Mobil.   Read more.

French presidential candidate Francois Fillon was put under formal investigation by magistrates on Tuesday on suspicion of embezzling state funds - a move that may ruin the right-winger's hopes of winning power in May. Fillon's campaign has been dogged by allegations he lavishly paid his British wife Penelope and two of his children hundreds of thousands of euros of public money for assistance, but he has refused to pull out of the presidential race.   Read more .

Attorneys for eight US states with Democratic majorities are pushing to prevent President Donald Trump’s new travel ban from taking effect. California’s attorney general has announced he will join the lawsuit, calling the measure unconstitutional.   Read more.

Trump and his White House don’t argue on the merits. They attack the credibility of the institutions that come up with facts and arguments they don’t like.   Read more .

After two videos surfaced Saturday of a Vallejo police officer tackling and beating an unarmed man on the center median of a road and aiming his gun at onlookers, authorities said the officer involved is not on administrative leave.  Read more.

The Finance Ministry of Iceland said it would lift the remaining capital controls that have been in place since the financial crisis in 2008. The government started dismantling them last year by easing restrictions for local residents.  Read more.

Cambodians are responding with outrage to the U.S. government's demand that the country repay a nearly 50-year-old loan to Cambodia's brutal Lon Nol government, which came to power through a U.S.-backed coup and spent much of its foreign funds purchasing arms to kill its own citizens, according to Cambodia's current prime minister Hun Sen.   Read more.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is facing backlash over a tweet he sent Sunday supporting far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders ahead of the Netherlands' Wednesday election that critics say had overtones of white nationalism.   Read more .

 US Attorney Preet Bharara was pursuing multiple investigations relating to criminal charges against Fox News when he was fired on Saturday, according to Media Matters.   Read more.