from mcclatchy: A year ago the headline was "It's hot, hot, hot on the summer solstice." This year the solstice weather is much more confused. You have drought in Mississippi, snow in the Rocky Mountains, the mid-Atlantic sits under blanket of heat and humidity, and in the Pacific Northwest, cold and wet. In Kentucky you had a flood that left one 4-year-old asking, "Daddy are we going to die today?" A round-up of weather solstice stories from McClatchy:
from reuters: In the pre-dawn hours on Tuesday, about two dozen Union Army re-enactors raised a 33-star American flag over Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Harbor.
The first shots fired on April 12, 1861, marked the start of what would be a defining time in U.S. history. The Civil War took 620,000 American lives and ended the country's institution of slavery.
The National Park Service and the city of Charleston aimed for the sesquicentennial events to be both inclusive and true to history.
"Four million enslaved African Americans saw this as their revolution," said Robert Sutton, chief historian of the National Park Service, whose theme for the sesquicentennial nationwide is "Civil War to Civil Rights."
The agency now notorious for its infamous claim that the air was safe to breathe after 9/11 is now seeking to raise the PAGs (Protective Action Guides) to levels vastly higher than those at which they are currently set allowing for more radioactive contamination of the environment and the general public in the event of a radioactive disaster...
As of the time of this writing, a toxic cloud of radiation has not only reached the US West Coast, but has spread all the way across the country to states likeSouth Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, and Massachussetts. Both the US government and the mainstream media have largely denied any risk associated with the radiation and have actively engaged in covering up the extent to which it has spread across the country.
flashback: 'vibrant response': US nuke scenario & northcom from army news service: Consequence-management response forces, or CCMRF, are staging a training exercise beginning July 31 to prepare for potential domestic disasters capable of injuring or killing several thousand civilians.
The "Vibrant Response" exercise will be conducted by the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High-Yield Explosive, or CBRNE Joint Response Force, through Aug. 14.
"It's going to be extremely complex and require a tremendous amount of coordination with other agencies and locals at various levels," said Maj. Gen. John Basilica, commander of Operational Command Post 1, U.S. Army North. "It is all designed to test and challenge the headquarters and command in control elements to make sure they can work together to respond quickly, because speed is the most important piece of this."
The service members will be given a situation in which they will be testing communication capabilities and reactions. Participants will be role-playing as certain pubic figures, like mayor and governor, in one scenario.
CBRNE is made of three divisions, 9.1, 10.1 and 10.2; 10.1 and 10.2 are being trained to be combat-ready by Oct. 1. Basilica heads up the 10.2 task force, which consists of reserve-component units.
The exercise will involve about 400 to 500 people at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. The two divisions will each train one week, in succession with one another. Each CCMRF unit contains three task forces - medical, operations and aviation, in addition to smaller elements with specific technical expertise. The Operation Task Force 2/18 MEB from South Carolina, Medical Task Force 3/30 MEB from Illinois, and Aviation Task Force 11 from Kentucky will all participate in the exercise.
"We don't get that many opportunities to provide these specific headquarters together and train in a command-post type exercise," Basilica said.
The CBRNE was transferred to U.S. Northern Command's Joint Task Force Civil Support in October 2002. JTF-CS provides support from active, Guard and Reserve members, and civilians, who are all commanded by a National Guard general officer.
CBRNE is designed to work with federal agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Center for Disease Control, to aid, restore and prevent casualties in instances of major disaster.
The CCRMF is only used after all local, state and federal resources have been exhausted, Basilica and Collins said.
"We hope to God that there are no terrorist attacks or no major industrial accident in the U.S. where the city, state or federal government might ask for additional capabilities. We hope that does not happen, but if it does, I think it's a great story for the nation that you have these multiple CCMRF forces that would be trained and ready to step in and assist the states if they ask for extra help," Collins said.
update: pot lobby slams kellogg's for ditching phelps from ap: Snap, crackle ... pot? Bursting with indignation, legions of marijuana advocates are urging a boycott of Kellogg Co., including all of its popular munchies, for deciding to cut ties with Olympic hero Michael Phelps after he was photographed with a pot pipe. The leader of one of the biggest legalize-pot organizations, the Marijuana Policy Project, called Kellogg's action "hypocritical and disgusting," and said he'd never seen his membership so angry, with more than 2,300 of them signing an online petition... The group urged its supporters to boycott the company's products. "Kellogg's had no problem signing up Phelps when he had a conviction for drunk driving, an illegal act that could actually have killed someone," said Rob Kampia, the group's executive director. "To drop him for choosing to relax with a substance that's safer than beer is an outrage, and it sends a dangerous message to young people." Also urging a boycott were the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the Drug Policy Alliance. They encouraged their members to contact Kellogg to vent their views.
2 deaths result from wal-mart stampede from nydailynews: A worker died after being trampled and a woman miscarried when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart Friday morning, witnesses said. The unidentified worker, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m. Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him. “He was bum-rushed by 200 people,” said Jimmy Overby, 43, a co-worker. “They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too… I literally had to fight people off my back.”
guns go tax-free for south carolina shoppers on black friday from ap: TVs and laptops won't be the only hot items in South Carolina this Black Friday. The state is offering an unusual perk to shoppers: no sales tax on handguns, rifles and shotguns. The so-called "Second Amendment Weekend" is thanks to a little-debated amendment legislators tacked on this summer to a tax break for energy-efficient appliances. While the energy-efficiency measure doesn't go into effect until next year, on Friday and Saturday gun buyers won't have to pay state and local sales taxes that can total 8 percent. Taxes still apply to ammunition and accessories. "We are a gun-owning-tradition state, a hunting-tradition state," said Republican state Rep. Mike Pitts, a retired police officer who introduced the proposal and has promoted other pro-gun legislation. "Quite often people will buy their pop or grandpop a shotgun or rifle to hunt with for Christmas," he said in an interview by cell phone while out hunting.
2 killed in US toy store shooting from dpa: Two people were shot to death Friday in a southern California Toys R Us after an argument between rival shoppers escalated into a shooting, police said. The incident occurred in the city of Palm Desert, some 200 kilometres southeast of California, on so-called Black Friday, the day the US retail industry kicks off its biggest shopping period before Christmas with huge discounts and bargains. Initial reports were that two women were fighting and swearing and that gunfire erupted when two employees tried to break up the fight. Witnesses told the Los Angeles Times that both women involved were accompanied by men, one of whom drew a gun and shot in the air before shooting the other man in the back.
from ap: An 18-year-old accused of planning to bomb his high school will be charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, which carries a possible life sentence, the top federal prosecutor in South Carolina said Tuesday.
Ryan Schallenberger also will face two lesser federal charges stemming from what authorities say was a scheme to detonate explosives in a suicide attack on his high school in the small town of Chesterfield. The straight-A student will be charged in federal court in Florence on Tuesday afternoon, said Kevin McDonald, the acting U.S. attorney for South Carolina.
from kprc: Videos have surfaced showing two members of the South Carolina Highway Patrolusing their cruisers to ram fleeing suspects, just weeks after two leaders of the agency resigned because of a furor over a trooper's use of a racial slur. In one of the two new dash-cam videos, which were first reported Wednesday by The Post and Courier of Charleston, Lance Cpl. Steven C. Garren drives after a man on foot, striking him when he crosses in front of Garren's cruiser... "You better run... because I'm fixin' to kill you."
n. carolina teen dies from taser at grocery store from ap: A Charlotte teenager has died after being shocked with a Taser during a confrontation with police at the grocery store where he worked. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said 17-year-old Darryl Wayne died Thursday. An autopsy is pending. The Charlotte Observer reported Friday that officers responded to a call at a Food Lion and saw Turner throwing something at a store manager. Police said Turner appeared agitated, refused their commands and advanced toward an officer before the Taser was used.
ron paul to appear in next fox news debate from myrtle beach online: Following the New Hampshire primary, six Republican candidates will attend Thursday night's debate in Myrtle Beach, state party officials said today... Giuliani, Huckabee, McCain, Paul, Romney and Thompson... have all accepted their invitations, said Rob Godfrey, spokesman for the state Republican Party. "The stakes couldn't be higher this election, and we couldn't be more excited to extend a warm South Carolina welcome to six White House hopefuls who are seeking the Republican nomination," said Katon Dawson, chairman of the state GOP.
new hampshire district admits ron paul votes not counted from paul joseph watson: The head clerk of the New Hampshire town of Sutton has been forced to admit that Ron Paul received 31 votes yet when the final amount was transferred to a summary sheet and sent out to the media, the total was listed as zero. The fiasco throws the entire primary into doubt and could lead to a re-count. As we reported earlier today, an entire family voted for Ron Paul in Sutton, yet when the voting map on the Politico website was posted, the total votes for Ron Paul were zero.
vote fraud plagues nh primary from rogue government: The New Hampshire voting results should not be considered credible in either the Republican or Democrat races. There is a great deal of circumstantial and hard evidence indicating vote fraud. The most glaring is the fact that 31 votes for Ron Paul were not counted in Sutton, NH.
video: sutton vote fraud mentioned during c-span call-in from live leak: Caller from El Paso, TX calls regarding concerns over the digital machines used in the New Hampshire Primary.
clear evidence of widespread vote fraud in new hampshire from paul joseph watson: There were several major vote fraud issues to arise out of the New Hampshire primary revolving mainly around Ron Paul and Barack Obama, who were both seemingly cheated out of third and first places respectively as a result of rigged Diebold voting machines and deliberate malfeasance in the counting of hand-written paper ballots.
US military recruiting illegal aliens from press tv: Mexican citizen groups claim the US army is recruiting illegal immigrants from Mexico to send them to the war in Iraq. According to Prensa Latina on Friday in Culiacan, the capital of the northern state Sinaloa, civil activist Ildefonso Ortiz Cabrera told reporters that US military officers use young men of Latin American origin to recruit for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
russia successfully tests new icbm from ap: Russia's military on Tuesday successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads - a weapon intended to replace aging Soviet-era missiles... President Vladimir Putin has used windfall oil revenues to modernize Russia's military arsenals amid increasing tensions with the West. The Kremlin has fiercely opposed U.S. plans to deploy missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying they threaten Russia's security.
army eyes south carolina nuke site for training from military.com: The military is looking for a few good acres - very, very dark ones. The Army apparently has its night-vision goggles focused on the huge tract of federal land that comprises the Savannah River nuclear complex in the southwestern portion of the state. It wants to train light infantry units in battle exercises there that may include Army, Navy and Air Force Special Operations Forces. The plan was announced last month by the National Environmental Protection Act compliance officer at the Savannah River site... The exercises could involve anywhere from a handful of troops to 4,000 Soldiers from combat teams, the announcement said.
idaho police academy slogan: go out and cause ptsd from ap: A state police academy leader has disavowed the slogan of the most recent graduating class urging one another to "go out and cause" post-traumatic stress disorder. Each class at the Idaho Police Officer Standards and Training Academy is allowed to choose a slogan that is printed on its graduation programs, and the class of 43 graduates came up with "Don't suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it."
bush signs controversial budget bill from press tv: The US President signs a $555 billion bill to fund government operations, including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the White House says. The $555 billion bill for 2008 includes 70 billion dollars for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars without any timeline for troop withdrawal. The President's signature on the massive spending bill on Wednesday capped a long-running battle with the Democratic-run Congress. "The omnibus (bill) funds the government at responsible levels that the President proposed without raising taxes," White House Spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters. "It provides a down-payment for our troops who are in harm's way without arbitrary withdrawal timelines," he added.
italy seeks 'operation condor' plot suspects from bbc: Prosecutors in Italy have issued arrest warrants for 140 people over a decades-old plot by South American dictatorships called Operation Condor. One man - 60-year-old Uruguayan former naval intelligence officer Nestor Jorge Fernandez Troccoli - has already been arrested in Salerno, south Italy. Under Operation Condor, six governments worked together from the 1970s to hunt down and kill left-wing opponents... Among the other names on the list are the former Argentine military leader Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentine former naval chief admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera, and ex-Uruguayan junta leader Jorge Maria Bordaberry. Those named face charges ranging from lesser crimes to kidnappings and multiple murders.
from military.com: The warriors pose for the camera in a group shot - some holding their weapons in one hand and their holy book in another.
Elsewhere, a poster bears a quotation calling for the killing of enemy leaders and forcing the defeated people to convert.
If you think the images come from Islamic fundamentalist training camps in remote regions of the Middle East you'd be wrong.
The photo depicts Army trainees at Fort Jackson, S.C., where in addition to basic combat training recruits may also attend "God's Basic Training," while the poster -- boasting a quotation from conservative author Anne Coulter -- adorns the door of a Military Police office at Fort Riley, Kansas.
"These are startling and disgusting revelations of further unconstitutional behavior by technologically the most lethal organization ever created by humankind -- the U.S. military," said Mikey Weinstein, whose group, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, discovered the evangelical-oriented program at Fort Jackson and the Coulter poster at Fort Riley.
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from mcclatchy: A year ago the headline was "It's hot, hot, hot on the summer solstice." This year the solstice weather is much more confused. You have drought in Mississippi, snow in the Rocky Mountains, the mid-Atlantic sits under blanket of heat and humidity, and in the Pacific Northwest, cold and wet. In Kentucky you had a flood that left one 4-year-old asking, "Daddy are we going to die today?" A round-up of weather solstice stories from McClatchy:
