Monthly Archives: December 2013

12-year-old drug smuggler reignites immigration debate

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122_2013_cruz-iowa-20168201_s160x107The U.S. Border Patrol earlier this month arrested a 12-year-old illegal immigrant smuggling 80 pounds of marijuana from Mexico into Texas, reigniting a debate over controversial comments made by a Republican congressman earlier this year about children’s involvement in the cross-border drug trade.

Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican who has called for a crackdown on illegal immigration, had said there were more young illegal immigrants smuggling drugs than there were ones who were valedictorians of their classes in U.S. high schools.

In the Texas incident earlier this month, Border Patrol agents arrested six Mexicans — two adults, two 17-year-olds, a 16-year-old and the 12-year-old — smuggling more than 300 pounds of marijuana.

“They were carrying the marijuana on their backs and when arrested it was discovered that the 12-year-old boy had the heaviest load at 80 pounds,” the Border Patrol said in a statement describing the arrest.

Read more at The Washington Times

Suicide bomber kills at least 16 at Russian train station

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By Sergei Karpov
VOLGOGRAD, Russia

Interior Ministry members stand guard in front of the train station where a bomber detonated explosives in Volgograd
(Reuters)—A suicide attacker set off a bomb in the entrance hall of a Russian train station on Sunday, investigators said, killing at least 16 people in the second deadly attack within three days as Russia prepares to host the Winter Olympics.

Authorities said the attacker detonated a shrapnel-filled bomb in front of a metal detector just inside the main entrance of the station in Volgograd, a busy hub north of the violence-plagued North Caucasus region on Russia’s southern fringe.

Islamist militants in the North Caucasus have carried out a long string of attacks since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000. They now confront him with his biggest security challenge, threatening to disrupt the Olympics that start in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in 40 days.


(Raw video of the bombing released by AP)

Read more and see more video at Reuters

Marine Corps delays pull-up requirement for women

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marines_femalesThe Marine Corps has delayed the requirement for female Marines to do three pullups because most women have so far been unable to pass the test.

For 40 years, male recruits were required to perform three pullups to prove their upper body strength for combat, where they would need to carry heavy equipment and potentially lift themselves out of mud walls. Starting Jan. 1, female recruits would have been required to do the same.

Read more at FOX News.

It Looks Like A Crazy Guy Just Walking Around In The Snow. Then You Zoom Out And.. Whoa.

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snow-art3It’s possible you’ve never heard of Simon Beck, but after today, you won’t be able to forget him or his wintry works of art. Simon is an artist and is most well-known for making incredibly delicate and detailed art in the snow, just by walking over a fresh snowfall. He literally walks miles in the snow to create these pieces. And the part that blows our minds? He could spend hours upon hours creating one design, just to have it be covered by snowfall or blown away by the next day. But he still makes them.

snow-art5

Read more at Viral Nova

It Actually Is Better (and Healthier) to Give Than to Receive, Study Finds

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130204184300Feb. 4, 2013 — A five-year study by researchers at three universities has established that providing tangible assistance to others protects our health and lengthens our lives.

This, after more than two decades of research failed to establish that the same benefits accrue to the recipients of such help.

Principal investigator Michael J. Poulin, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo, says, “This study offers a significant contribution to the research literature on the relationship between social environment and health, and specifically to our understanding of how giving assistance to others may offer health benefits to the giver by buffering the negative effects of stress.”

Poulin, along with colleagues at Stony Brook University and Grand Valley State University, produced the study, “Giving to Others and the Association Between Stress and Mortality,” which was posted online Jan. 17 by the American Journal of Public Health, which will publish the study in an upcoming print issue.

The authors point out that although it is established that social isolation and stress are significant predictors of mortality and morbidity, 20 years of studies and meta-analytical review have failed to establish that receiving social support from others buffers recipients against mortality after exposure to psychosocial stress.

Read more at Science Daily

Professor admits faking AIDS vaccine to get $19M in grants

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aids_vaccineAn Iowa State University professor resigned after admitting he falsely claimed rabbit blood could be turned into a vaccine for the AIDS virus.

Dr. Dong-Pyou Han spiked a clinical test sample with healthy human blood to make it appear that the rabbit serum produced disease-fighting antibodies, officials said.

The bogus findings helped Han’s team obtain $19 million in research grants from the National Institutes of Health, said James Bradac, who oversees the institutes’ AIDS research.

Read more at the New York Post

President Obama’s Top 10 Constitutional Violations Of 2013

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By Ilya Shapiro

One of Barack Obama’s chief accomplishments has been to return the Constitution to a central place in our public discourse.

Unfortunately, the president fomented this upswing in civic interest not by talking up the constitutional aspects of his policy agenda, but by blatantly violating the strictures of our founding document. And he’s been most frustrated with the separation of powers, which doesn’t allow him to “fundamentally transform” the country without congressional acquiescence.

But that hasn’t stopped him. In its first term, the Administration launched a “We Can’t Wait” initiative, with senior aide Dan Pfeiffer explaining that “when Congress won’t act, this president will.” And earlier this year, President Obama said in announcing his new economic plans that “I will not allow gridlock, or inaction, or willful indifference to get in our way.”

And so, as we reach the end of another year of political strife that’s fundamentally based on clashing views on the role of government in society, I thought I’d update a list I made two years ago and hereby present President Obama’s top 10 constitutional violations of 2013.

Read more at Forbes Magazine

McDonald’s pulls ‘McResource’ site warning workers against fast food

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By Carly Rothman/The Star-Ledger

mcdIt was an embarrassing nugget in the news this week: McDonald’s own employee website seemed to be advising employees to steer clear of the chain’s own fast food.

Now, tired of defending the McResource line against this and other criticism, the company has yanked it, the Wall Street Journal reports. The site was operated by a third-party vendor.

“Unfortunately, as you may have seen in the news over the past few days and weeks, a number of stories have scrutinized some content and advice found on the well-intended website. Given that the content has been taken out of context and that we are unable to screen and approve all content posted on the site, we decided to remove it from our suite of resources,” read a memo reviewed and quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

Read more at NJ.com

Citizens take law into own hands after cash-strapped Ore. county guts sheriff’s office

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nvcwWhen budget woes reduced the sheriff’s department in one rural Oregon county to a bare-bones force, residents decided to take matters into their own hands — creating armed patrol groups in defiance of local officials.

Their decision has raised safety concerns with the county government, which would prefer residents instead hike their own taxes to fund the hiring of trained deputies. But despite the risks, the move stands as a unique, some would say innovative, response to one of the country’s most severe local budget crunches.

The government in Josephine County, where nearly 70 percent of the land is owned by the U.S. government, had long relied on federal timber subsidies to pay the bills. When the feds terminated the funds, county officials scrambled to pass a May 2012 tax levy to make up a nearly $7.5 million budget shortfall.

Read more at FOX News

Feds charge white ‘knockout’ suspect with hate crime

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‘The plan is to see if I were to hit a black person, would this be nationally televised?’

Federal authorities said Thursday they have arrested and charged a Texas man in connection with the “knockout game,” accusing him of a hate crime for targeting a black man for a vicious street attack.

Most knockout victims that have appeared in news reports have been white, but the Justice Department said in this instance the victim was a 79-year-old black man, and stepped in with federal charges

“Suspected crimes of this nature will simply not be tolerated,” said Kenneth Magidson, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of Texas. “Evidence of hate crimes will be vigorously investigated and prosecuted with the assistance of all our partners to the fullest extent of the law.”

Read more at Washington Times