Obama Ends 2014 With Swagger And A Boatload Of Unanswered Questions. WASHINGTON -- A month and a half ago, President Barack Obama went to the East Room of the White House to take his medicine.
His party was fresh off a horrible midterm election loss. His name was toxic. One leading Democratic Senate candidate wouldn't even say whether she had voted for him in 2012. His failure to influence events globally, and the inability to pass major legislation domestically, had all contributed to a prevailing sense that the White House had lost its way. The press conference was notable because Obama struck a defiant tone, pledging to plow forward on his planned executive actions even if Republicans had run against them. Watch How Much California's Drought Improved This Week. When it comes to drought, California is no longer “exceptional.”
Data released Thursday, after recent heavy rains, shows that just 32 percent of California now faces “exceptional drought,” the most severe level of dryness recorded by the U.S. Drought Monitor. Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Martin Amis Recall Surviving the Satanic Vers... Elizabeth Warren was right: The links between Citigroup and government run deep.
Washington's version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is much less exciting than everybody else's.
It's called One Degree of Citigroup, and it's not much of a game since so many economic policymakers have worked at the banking behemoth. It's exactly the point Elizabeth Warren made in a big speech last week, expressing anger that Citigroup and other big banks were able to weaken a key Wall Street regulation in the new government spending bill. St. Louis Grand Jury Heard Witnesses Who Lied, Prosecutor Says. Some witnesses were clearly lying when they spoke to a grand jury about the August police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., according to St.
Louis County prosecuting attorney Robert McCulloch. In an interview about the case Friday, the prosecutor says he won't seek perjury charges. Nearly a month after he announced the grand jury's decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, McCulloch told St. 4 things that should happen now that we know the truth about Witness #40, a white supremacist. No eyewitness testimony was more consistent with Darren Wilson's personal story of events the day he shot and killed Mike Brown than that of Witness #40—who we now know as white supremacist Sandy McElroy.
Aftereffects Of W.V. Chemical Spill Still Felt Months Later. As 2014 winds down, we're revisiting some of this year's big stories.
And we wanted to check in on the aftermath of the chemical spill in West Virginia. In-new-york-thousands-march-in-continuing-protests-over-garner-case. More than 25,000 people marched through Manhattan on Saturday, police officials said, in the largest protest in the city since a grand jury declined this month to indict an officer in the death of an unarmed black man on Staten Island.
Just before 2 p.m. they began spilling out of Washington Square Park, and after an hour and a half, the park still had not emptied. Walking north toward 34th Street, the protesters filled the cold air by chanting “I can’t breathe,” the last words of Eric Garner, the Staten Island man, who died from a chokehold after an officer dragged him to the ground on a hot day in July.
The protest, which at times stretched for over 20 blocks, highlighted growing anger nationwide over recent police deaths, including that of Mr. Which 32 Senate Democrats Just Sold You Out to Give Wall Street a CRomnibus Christmas? Hannity favorite ‘Witness 40′ in Wilson grand jury is a liar and convicted felon: report. Darren Wilson (St.
Louis County Prosecutors Office) Grand jury “Witness 40,” whose testimony helped Officer Darren Wilson escape criminal charges in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, has been revealed as a virulently racist St. Louis woman with serious credibility issues. Taliban go on killing spree at Pakistan school, 132 students dead. Who Was Man Haron Monis? 7 Facts About Sydney Hostage Taker. Hostages in the Sydney cafe siege: 'We’re not getting out of here'
The gunman knew his message was not getting out, and he grew suddenly more angry.
The U.S. And Cuba: A Brief History Of A Tortured Relationship : Parallels. Cuban leader Fidel Castro looks up at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington on April 16, 1959.
The Cuban leader visited Washington several months seizing power. But U.S. Mexico authorities ‘knew about attack on students as it happened’ Mexican federal authorities had real-time information of an attack on a group of student teachers by corrupt local police, but did nothing to stop the disappearance and probable massacre of 43 people, according to new evidence published by the news magazine Proceso. Based on leaked government documents, the new allegations are likely to further fuel public anger at the government of the president, Enrique Peña Nieto, which has insisted that federal authorities share no responsibility for the students’ disappearance. So far, 79 people have been arrested over the presumed massacre on 26 September: all are allegedly linked to a network of corrupt local politicians and police officers in the southern city of Iguala or members of a drug gang called Guerreros Unidos.
Parents of the missing students have long alleged that federal law enforcement institutions must have known what was happening and attacked them for not intervening. New development in Freedom Industries investigation. CHARLESTON, W.Va. — U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin will join the FBI and federal EPA Wednesday afternoon at the federal courthouse in Charleston to announce what’s being called a “development” in the federal investigation following the January water emergency.
Goodwin began the federal probe soon after MCHM from Freedom Industries leaked into the Elk River and contaminated the drinking water for residents in parts of nine counties. The new development could be a plea bargain with Freedom Industries. The company has indicated in bankruptcy court filings that it has agreed to such a deal. The Goodwin news conference is scheduled for 1:30. Meanwhile, the former president and CEO of Freedom, Gary Southern, wants Goodwin off his criminal case. Cleveland Police Union President Says Shooting of 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice Was Justified. VICE News is closely watching policing in America. Check out the Officer Involved blog here. Jeffrey Follmer, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, said that the police killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice was "justified," while speaking on MSNBC Monday night. Rice was carrying a pellet gun in a Cleveland playground when an officer shot him within two seconds of exiting his cruiser on November 22, surveillance footage showed.
A grand jury is currently deliberating whether to bring charges against the officer. Emergency Interest Rate Hike Fails to Stop Ruble's Freefall as Russia's Economic Crisis Deepens. A late-night unveiling of an emergency interest rate increase to 17 percent has failed to stop the Russian ruble from plummeting into freefall against the US dollar, prompting the worst economic crisis in Russia since the country's financial meltdown and debt default in 1998. The 1am announcement of the monster interest rate hike by the Central Bank of Russia was intended to dissuade savers from pulling their money out of banks, but despite a brief rally of over 9 percent on Tuesday morning, tumbling oil prices — dipping below $60 a barrel -— heaped pressure back on almost immediately, quickly erasing the gains of the previous few hours.
Browns Player Offers Thoughtful Rebuke After Police Union Slams T-Shirt Protest. FBI investigates possible lynching of 17-year-old in Bladenboro, North Carolina. By Evan Blake 15 December 2014 The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has taken over the case of the death of Lennon Lacy, a 17-year-old African American high school student in Bladenboro, North Carolina. Ex-Freedom Industries Executives Behind West Virginia Spill Indicted On Pollution Charges. Obama is unpopular. He's also accomplished an incredible amount. On November 26, the Obama administration put forward new anti-smog regulations that should prevent thousands of premature deaths and heart attacks every year. About two weeks later, Obama's appointees at the Federal Reserve implemented new rules curbing reckless borrowing by giant banks that will reduce profits and shareholder earnings but increase the safety of the financial system.
"Witness 40": Exposing A Fraud In Ferguson. Key Ferguson Witness Sandra McElroy Faked Entire Testimony, Had Lied To Police Before, Report Finds. Sandra McElroy, a key Ferguson witness whose testimony to the grand jury that eventually exonerated Officer Darren Wilson in the killing of unarmed teen Michael Brown, has been among the most often cited in the media, simply made up her whole story, a new investigative report finds.