Tag Archives: National

AMAC supports democrat elder abuse protection bill

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The Association of Mature American Citizens organization issued a letter of support to Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA) for his bill, H.R. 3090, the Elder Protection and Abuse Prevention Act of 2013. Arizona democrats Ron Barber and Raul Grijalva—of Arizona’s 2nd and 3rd districts respectively—are among 43 co-sponsors of the bill.

Andrew Mangione, on the AMAC web site, wrote, “This piece of legislation sheds light on elder abuse and institutes a number of legal protective measures to ensure that incidents of abuse are properly reported and reduced nationwide. To put an end to these injustices, H.R. 3090 strengthens the definitions of elder abuse, neglect, and elder justice and defines the terms financial exploitation and adult protective services for the first time in the Older Americans Act (OAA) of 1965.”

H.R. 3090 seeks to strengthen the definitions of abuse in Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare, section of the United States Code. It also provides funding for various government and private agencies in the area of elder abuse neglect and financial exploitation.

AMAC is a conservative alternate group to AARP.

Arizona Firearms and Collectibles gun show this weekend

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FLAGSTAFF—The Arizona Collectibles and Firearms gun show will be held this Saturday and Sunday the 21st and 22nd at the Coconino County Fairgrounds on Ft. Tuthill loop. The show times are from 9 am to 5 pm and 9 am to 4 pm respectively. The cost to enter the show is $7 for one day and $10 for both days. Look for a $2 discount coupon. Gun show dealers and purchasers are reminded that they are obligated to follow all applicable laws.

The Shocking Ingredients In Beer

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I have to confess, I’m not a beer drinker, but there’s someone in my household that loves it, so I had to figure out the truth. Is beer really healthy? Why are the ingredients not listed on the label? Which brands can we trust? Which brands are trying to slowly poison us with cheap and harmful ingredients? All of these questions were going through my head at once at lightning speed. So a year ago, I started to research what was really in beer and after questioning several beer companies, reading books about food science, and talking to experts, the information I discovered was downright shocking.

I see it all the time. Someone who eats organic, makes the right choices at the grocery store, is fit and lives an extraordinarily healthy lifestyle but then drinks beer like it is going out of style.

Caring about what you eat doesn’t necessarily translate into caring about what you drink and this is a HUGE MISTAKE.

Before we get into what exactly is in beer that you should be worried about, let’s talk about how body reacts to alcohol in general.

Read more by the Food Babe

Aeroscraft – Mega Airship Back in the air in Tustin, California

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aeroscraft_silver650Two days after receiving experimental airworthiness certification from the Federal Aviation Administration Aeros Corp. began flight-testing the Aeroscraft airship. For safety, the current flights are tethered, and, according to John Kiehle, communications director at Aeros, untethered flights are expected to follow within few weeks. Francis Govers of Gizmag reports.

The Aeroscraft half scale prototype is 266 ft (79 m) long and 97 ft (29.5m) wide. The final design is expected to be more than 400 feet (121m) long and be able to lift a cargo weight of 66 tons. The prototype is powered by three swiveling engines – two on the sides and one in the back – that provide both lift and thrust to lift the airship into the air and propel it forward. The rear engine gives control at low airspeeds by pushing the tail around, side to side or up and down. Two sets of wing-like control surfaces are mounted fore and aft, and two large rudders push up vertically from the tail end. These aerodynamic surfaces will be used at higher speeds (above 20 mph / 30 kph).

Read more at Defense Update

U.S. Forest Service bans exploding targets

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Seven fires in Rocky Mountains blamed on devices

DENVER – The U.S. Forest Service announced a ban on exploding targets Monday, citing them as a major cause of wildfires.

Shooters who use exploding targets have ignited 16 wildfires since last year, including seven in the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain region of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota.

The ban extends to all national forests and grasslands in those five states.

The public should understand that exploding targets can cause fires, said John Walsh, the U.S. Attorney for Colorado.

“You don’t want to have on your conscience starting a huge forest fire,” Walsh said.

A month before the Boston Marathon bombings, the FBI warned that commercial “exploding targets” used for recreational rifle shooting could power homemade bombs on American streets.

Read more and see video at The Durango Herald

Congress and the Justice Dept’s Dangerous Attempts to Define “Journalist” Threaten to Exclude Bloggers

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Lawmakers in Washington are again weighing in on who should and should not qualify as a journalist—and the outcome looks pretty grim for bloggers, freelancers, and other non-salaried journalists.

On July 12, the Justice Department released its new guidelines on investigations involving the news media in the wake of the fallout from the leak scandals involving the monitoring of AP and Fox News reporters. While the guidelines certainly provide much-needed protections for establishment journalists, as independent journalist Marcy Wheeler explained, the DOJ’s interpretation of who is a “member[] of the news media” is dramatically narrower than the definition provided in the Privacy Protection Act and effectively excludes bloggers and freelancers from protection. This limiting definition is causing alarm among bloggers like Glenn Reynolds on the right as well.

While the DOJ’s effort to limit the scope of who can be recognized as a journalist is problematic, it doesn’t have teeth. Guidelines are, well, guidelines. But the report is part of a broader legislative effort in Washington to simultaneously offer protection for the press while narrowing the scope of who is afforded it. Importantly, Congress introduced federal shield bills in May—both ironically named the “Free Flow of Information Act of 2013”—that arguably would exclude bloggers, freelancers, and other non-salaried journalists from protection because they are not included within the bills’ narrow definition of who qualifies as a journalist.

If these bills—support for which the White House reaffirmed in its DOJ report—pass without change, Congress effectively will create two tiers of journalists: the institutional press licensed by the government, and everyone else. That’s a pretty flimsy shield if what we are really trying to protect is the free flow of information.

Read more at the Electronic Frontier Foundation

USDA Requires Magicians To Have “Disaster Plans” For Their Rabbits

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To say that American businesses are over-regulated is a bit of an understatement. In very small print, the USDA spends 14 pages to spell out regulations specifically pertaining to rabbits and requirements that need to be met to keep one’s “rabbit license.”

A 1965 law required that labs obtain government licenses in order to use animals for testing purposes. But in 1970, that law was amended to include not just labs, but any entity that exhibits animals. Like zoos and circuses. But because the regulations written to enforce these laws are so vague and wordy like every other law and regulation we have, anything can be said to “exhibit” animals. Not just the big things like zoos.

Apparently, magicians who use rabbits as props for their tricks are not at all exempt. So, they too must obtain a license to “exhibit” their pet rabbits. And since they have to have the proper government license to do so, they must follow all the regs associated with maintaining that license. They have to pay $40 a year, give their animal regular vet care and submit to random house searches.

But now they’ve apparently got a new requirement needed in order for these magicians to hold on to their “rabbit licenses.” 54-year-old magician Marty Hahne knows about it, because he got a letter from the USDA asking him for a “disaster plan” for his rabbit, Casey. You know, like, “What does Marty the Magician plan on doing to make sure his rabbit is safe in case of a flood, a hurricane or an earthquake?” This is not a joke.

Read more at Last Resistance

Colorado town considers licensing bounty hunters to shoot down drones

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Drone season opens in Colorado using Joe Biden rules.

But if anyone accidentally shoots down a remote-controlled toy airplane, the proposed ordinance warns, “the owner of the toy remote control aerial vehicle shall be reimbursed for its full cost by the shooter.”

The tiny town of Deer Trail, Colo. — barely more than a wide spot on Interstate 70 about 55 miles east of Denver, population 546 — is considering an ordinance that would authorize licensed bounty hunters to shoot down unmanned aircraft violating its “sovereign airspace.”

A six-page petition circulated by a resident says that the threat of surveillance from drones — regardless of who is piloting them — is a threat to “traditional American ideas of Liberty and Freedom” enjoyed by Deer Trail’s “ranchers, farmers, cowboys and Indians, as well as contemporary citizens.”

Therefore, drone incursions are to be seen as acts of war.

According to the proposed ordinance, which will be considered by the town council at its next meeting on Aug. 6, prospective bounty hunters can get a one-year drone-hunting license for $25.

Proposed bounties will be $25 for those turning in the wings or fuselage of downed aircraft and $100 for mostly intact vehicles. To collect the bounty, the wreckage must have “markings, and configuration … consistent with those used by the United States federal government.”

Such “trophies” then become the property of Deer Trail.

The ordinance spells out the rules of engagement. Shooters must use shotguns, 12-gauge or smaller, firing lead, steel or depleted uranium ammunition and they can’t fire on aircraft flying higher than 1,000 (a determination made using a range finder or a best guess). No weapons with rifled barrels allowed, and no tracer rounds.

An “engagement” is limited to three shots at an aircraft every two hours. Being unable to bring down the drone within those guidelines, the petition notes, “demonstrates a lack of proficiency with the weapon.”

Read more at the Daily Caller

Want to be Unsene on the Internet?

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SAN FRANCISCO—With recent revelations about the NSA spying and knowledge that Microsoft has left “backdoors” open for the government to enter and tamper with your computers, some may have decided to switch to the more secure Linux operating system.

Linux has advantages. Better security is the main feature. Depending on the version—called “distros” in Linux lingo; short for distribution—you can set up more effective firewalls. You can get programs that alert you when certain unwanted activities are going on in your computer. Linux has less problems with viruses. This is probably due to the fact that hackers are not so much interested in Linux as they are Microsoft. Because Microsoft equals Bill Gates.

One disadvantage of Linux is that it is a bit unwieldy for most computer users. They have neither the time nor the inclination to explore yet another operating system. Some cities have Linux Users Groups that may help, but that still takes time out of their schedule. Some distros are helping, such as Ubuntu, by making more user-friendly graphic interfaces.

Another is that much hardware is only Microsoft or MAC friendly unless the company has developed an alternative driver. That you may have to find and download.

There is a new open-source start-up which is seeking funding through Indiegogo. This group, associated with Chris Kitze of Beforeitsnews, has a web email and Skype alternative called Unsene. It is currently in the Beta web version and free. It will eventually ship as a program and Android and iPhone versions are planned.

The premium service is intended to allow for more features depending on the amount donated. Eventually it will be $47 per year, but people donating now will get a lifetime version for $37.

The full security features only work with Google Chrome. Beforeitsnews explains, “The text messaging and chat work with all browsers, but the audio and video calling and the encrypted file sharing require WebRTC, a new technology that is only available on Chrome. Support for Safari, IE and Firefox is expected soon. The Chrome browser is available for free download from Google.”

This program claims military-style encryption. “The service offers a basic level of encryption (AES256) and advanced encryption (xAES up to 4096 bits) and we’ve got some additional tricks up our sleeve for extremely secure encryption.”

See Also: Stop the Spying in Your Inbox

KTVU Oakland and NTSB may be sued over racist prank.

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OAKLAND, CA—The Asiana airlines will sue the Obama administration’s National Transportation Safety Board and KTVU-TV of Oakland for releasing false and racially insensitive names of pilots of Flight 214 which crashed July 6. The airliner crash had three fatalities.

Asiana will review if the lawsuit will proceed despite the fact that KTVU has retracted the names and claimed that the NTSB verified that names that were released.

Sources: The Christian Science Monitor