[AOL - CBS] Three Washington state police officers were cleared of all charges Thursday in the death of Manuel "Manny" Ellis, a Black man, in 2020.
The jury acquitted Christopher Burbank, 38, and Matthew Collins, 40 of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges. The jury also acquitted Timothy Rankine, 34, of manslaughter charges. All three men had pleaded not guilty.Lawyers for the three police officers told the jury last week that Ellis' death was the result of drug use, not excessive force that included officers choking and shocking him and holding him facedown.
Wayne Fricke, who represents Burbank, said last week that Ellis was addicted to methamphetamine, and it caused him to be violent, unpredictable, and paranoid.
"This is a situation where he created his own death," Fricke said during closing arguments in the officers' nine-week trial. "It was his behavior that forced the officers to use force against him because he created a situation that required them to act."Ellis, who repeatedly told the officers, "Can't breathe, sir," died March 3, 2020, nearly three months before George Floyd's death would spark an international outcry against police brutality.
This was the first trial of officers charged in a suspect's death since voters approved a state measure in 2018 removing a requirement that prosecutors must prove police acted with malice.
[Epoch Times] The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday invalidated the state's landmark Climate Protection Program (CPP), which aimed to slash greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel companies by 90 percent by 2050.
The state's rulemaking failed to "substantially comply" with the requirements for disclosure when adopting rules under the federal Clean Air Act of 1970, a three-judge panel of the state appeals court said.
"We conclude that the CPP rules are invalid," reads the ruling, authored by Judge Jacqueline Kamins. Ironically, their environmental compliance didn't ... comply.
The ruling follows a legal challenge by farmers, fossil fuel companies, and others, and comes as a setback to the Oregon state government's climate agenda.
The CPP, launched last year, was touted as one of the nation's most ambitious climate programs. It set a target for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2035 and by 90 percent by 2050.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/22/2023 00:00 ||
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[GEO.TV] In the heart of Papua New Guinea, betel nut, a psychoactive substance, is deeply ingrained in daily life, offering a ritualistic awakening to millions, including civil servant David Taim. If you're not familiar with it, betel is chewed throughout Southeast and South Asia, especially in rural areas. It stains the teeth, the gums, the chin, and the front of the shirt red and eventually black. "Come here, gimme a kiss"
Yet, despite its popularity, the world remains largely unaware of the betel nut's addictive grip and its ominous link to a cancer surge.
The betel nut, originating from the areca palm, ranks as the fourth most widely-used psychoactive substance globally, trailing only caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol.
With estimates suggesting 600 million regular users worldwide, the nut's production has more than doubled in the last two decades.
Chewing styles vary across regions, from India's mass-manufactured packages to the unadulterated habits of the Chamorro people in the Mariana Islands. Despite the diversity, the nut delivers a consistent mild euphoria, fueling its burgeoning popularity.
However, beneath the cultural significance lies a troubling reality. Studies dating back to the early 20th century hinted at a connection between betel nuts and cancer, a link solidified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2004.
The nut's classification as a group 1 carcinogen hasn't stemmed its global consumption, especially in tropical Asia and the Pacific, where oral cancer rates soar.
In Papua New Guinea, where betel nuts are a cultural staple, oral cancer per capita is the highest globally. Weak healthcare systems and a lack of awareness exacerbate the issue, leading to late-stage diagnoses and limited chances for treatment. Even in regions with more robust healthcare, such as the Northern Mariana Islands, the impact is severe.
American surgeon William Moss, shocked by the disproportionate oral cancer rates in the Mariana Islands, likens the betel nut issue to the early tobacco crisis. Despite the clear carcinogenic link, sales remain largely unregulated, echoing a familiar narrative from the tobacco era.
Efforts to curb the betel nut trade, like the 2013 ban in Port Moresby, face resistance due to economic dependencies. A lack of awareness among chewers about the nut's carcinogenic nature compounds the challenge. Minor restrictions reappeared in 2023, prompting concerns about livelihoods.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2023 00:00 ||
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#1
Efforts to curb the betel nut trade...face resistance due to economic dependencies.
#2
Efforts to curb the betel nut cigarette trade...face resistance due to economic dependencies.
Tobacco tax revenue by state
Total tobacco tax revenue for the US as a whole in 2021 was a bit over $19 billion. Sounds like a tobacco dependency to me.
[CNN] The US Air Force plans to bring the Pacific island airfield that launched the atomic bombings of Japan back into commission as it tries to broaden its basing options in the event of any hostilities with China, the service’s top officer in the Pacific says.
Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of Pacific Air Forces, told Nikkei Asia in an interview published this week that North Airfield on the island of Tinian will become an "extensive" facility once work has been completed to reclaim it from the jungle that has grown over the base since the last US Army Air Force units abandoned it in 1946. Sending a message? Historic photos at the link.
"If you pay attention in the next few months, you will see significant progress, especially at Tinian North," Wilsbach said. The Air Force is also adding facilities at Tinian International Airport in the center of the island.
Pacific Air Forces confirmed Wilsbach’s comments to CNN but said there was no official release on the subject.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/22/2023 07:47 ||
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[FoxNews] 'A storm like yesterday’s would render 80% of cars useless is, to say the least, ill-advised,' Democratic Rep Golden says.
A top Maine state environmental agency delayed a highly-anticipated vote to approve a sweeping electric vehicle (EV) mandate amid a storm that caused widespread power outages.
The Maine Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) announced that it had indefinitely postponed the meeting, which was slated for Thursday afternoon, until further notice following the storm. Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who has pursued an aggressive green energy agenda, declared a state of emergency this week, an action that closed state government offices.
"Governor Janet Mills declared a State of Civil Emergency for 14 Maine counties following a significant wind and rain storm that has left hundreds of thousands of people without power and that has caused significant flooding and infrastructure damage, including to town and state roadways," the Maine BEP said in a statement.
"In consideration of the challenges facing Maine citizens who may wish to participate in the upcoming Board meeting in Augusta, the Board is postponing its meeting scheduled for December 21, 2023," the statement continued.
In abolishing the private ownership for production goods, socialism abolishes the market for them and makes it impossible for market prices and costs of production to emerge. Without profits and losses, producers have no “compass” to guide them through production choices. pic.twitter.com/ygIgD3ox8f
[AFRICANEWS] Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embaló has taken decisive action in the political arena, dismissing Prime Minister Geraldo Martins just a week after reinstating him. Martins initially assumed the role in August but was ousted earlier this month when President Embaló dissolved the government following a thwarted coup attempt on December 1.
President Embaló, however, reappointed Martins to the position last week. In a surprising turn of events, a presidential decree issued on Wednesday revealed that Rui Duarte de Barros, who previously served as the transitional Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau from 2012 to 2014, would be the new appointee.
The recent clashes between two army factions in the capital, Bissau, during President Embaló's absence at the UN's COP28 climate conference in Dubai added another layer of complexity to the country's political landscape.
In a further move, President Embaló has formed a new government, assigning the fight against corruption to the head of the new team, Rui Duarte Barros. This development comes amid a crisis marked by the dissolution of the Assembly and clashes that President Embaló labeled a "coup attempt."
Speaking at the inauguration of the new Prime Minister, Embaló emphasized an unrelenting fight against corruption as a core task for the new government. He underscored that no one has the right to claim public assets for personal gain and stated that if any suspicions of corruption arise, individuals will be held accountable before the law.
[AFRICANEWS] Storm clouds are finally gathering over Hwange National Park, but it's too late for more than a hundred elephants who have succumbed to a prolonged drought at the start of the austral summer.
Simba Marozva and other rangers in the Zim-bob-wean reserve now only have to cut the tusks off the decomposing corpses to prevent poachers from finding them.
The 14,600 km2 park is home to more than 45,000 savannah elephants, so numerous that they are considered a threat to the environment.
The scene is heartbreaking: blackened corpses mark a landscape where the rains are more than six weeks late and temperatures regularly reach 40 degrees.
Some have fallen into dried-up potholes, others have spent their last hours in the shade of a tree. Many are baby elephants: all that remains is their shriveled skin over their bones, giving off a tenacious odour.
The intact tusk is a sign of natural death. In recent weeks, Simba Marozva and his colleagues have been on daily patrol in search of the corpses.
On average, an elephant drinks over 200 litres of water and eats 140 kilos of food a day.
More than 200 pachyderms had died from the drought by 2019. Rangers believe that the current situation is even more critical.
The quest for water is putting the elephants at risk, as they come dangerously close to inhabited areas on the outskirts of the park. Thirsty, they draw from the pools of houses or hotels or drink from water points contaminated by animal corpses.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2023 00:00 ||
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#1
Isn't interesting how Google, Comcast and etc, have all had IT Sec issues and now want you to use your Cell phone for a 2-step verification process.
A process that would have you giving them your #, and quiet access to all the other trackable info that goes with it. Likely having like your GPS location 24/7, what stores you shop, places you frequent, bars, political venues and more.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The price of Brent oil futures for delivery in February 2024 on the London ICE exchange began to decline amid reports received on the afternoon of December 21 about Angola's withdrawal from OPEC.
Oh? What brought that on, pray tell?
This is evidenced by trading data.
According to the exchange data at 15:17 Moscow time, the Brent price rose by 0.48%, to $79.53 per barrel. By 15:38 Moscow time, after reports of Angola’s withdrawal from OPEC, the price per barrel of Brent fell by 0.53% to $78.73.
As previously reported, on December 21, Angola's Minister of Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources, Diamontino Azevedo , said that the country was leaving OPEC because its authorities did not see the results of participation in the organization and did not agree with the approved oil production quotas.
Yes, one can see how that might annoy.
Previously, production quotas had no impact on the situation in Angola’s economy, but if the country had complied with the agreements reached by OPEC in November 2023, it “would have suffered,” Azevedo said.
As previously reported, on November 30, OPEC+ member countries reached a preliminary agreement on a new reduction in oil production by more than 1 million barrels per day.
On the same day, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia would deepen the voluntary reduction in oil supplies to a total volume of 500 thousand barrels per day and extend it until the end of the first quarter of 2024.
OPEC plays an important role in stabilizing energy markets, as noted earlier by the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov . The organization plays an important role in creating conditions for maintaining prices for main energy resources at a balanced level, the presidential press secretary added.
#1
...What we've seen here in SC in regards to prices was a long steady slide to $2.53 in some places, then a jump the other day when the tankers started getting re-routed; that jumped it back up to about $2.85.
But almost as soon as it got there it started sliding back down again, and this morning it's around $2.72. Angola's not a huge producer, but taking their oil out of the OPEC equation is nothing but good for prices.
[REMIX via Zero] Poland’s public television news stations went off the air yesterday as police conducted massive raids to seize public news station TVP, with fears becoming realized that Prime Minister Donald Tusk would move quickly to crack down on press freedoms once he assumed power.
A group of senior Law and Justice (PiS) politicians, including party leader Jarosław Kaczyński and former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, arrived at the headquarters of state-run TV broadcaster TVP on Wednesday afternoon as the new pro-EU government moved to seize control of state-run press in dramatic authoritarian fashion.
PiS politicians compared the action to the introduction of martial law in Poland in 1981 in the sense that the government then also shut down TV programs and dismissed scores of journalists.
There was outrage too at an incident in which a female MP from PiS was assaulted by one of the bodyguards who assisted the new chairman of the TVP Board in taking over an office at TVP.
[GEO.TV] A gunman at Prague's Charles University's Faculty of Arts building in Jan Palach Square shot and killed at least 15 people and injured 24 others in what is being dubbed as the Czech Republic's deadliest mass shooting to date.
The shooter, a student at the university, was subsequently "eliminated" by the police. Earlier on the same day, the shooter's father was found dead.
Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda expressed the unsettling reality, stating, "Now it turns out that, unfortunately, our world is also changing, and the problem of the individual shooter is emerging here as well."
Eyewitness Petr Nedoma, director of the Rudolfinum Gallery, recounted seeing the shooter with an automatic weapon on a gallery, firing towards the Manes Bridge. The assailant eventually surrendered by putting his hands up and discarding the weapon on the street.
Police swiftly sealed off the area, and ambulances lined up to attend to the maimed. A witness described the terrifying moments, recalling, "It was scary, there were a lot of coppers everywhere, who were shouting at us with submachine guns, telling us to run outside."
As a result of the shooting at Charles University in Prague, according to official data, 14 people were killed and 25 were injured. The head of the Czech police, Martin Vondrashek , told reporters on December 21 .
“At the moment I can confirm 14 victims of this terrible crime and 25 wounded. Ten of them are in serious condition,” Vondraszek said.
Information that the shooter committed suicide was also confirmed by the police.
As reported by IA Regnum , the shooter at the University of Prague was a student at the Faculty of Philosophy.
A 24-year-old student, David Kozak was previously wanted in connection with a suspected murder in the village of Kladno. At this time, nothing is known about the shooter's motives. He had no accomplices.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2023 00:00 ||
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[GEO.TV] Pope Francis ...Argentine liberation theologist, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He was elected pope in 2013. Rather than setting up shop in Avignon, where he belongs, the first Jesuit Pope chose to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse instead of the papal apartments. He is big on climate change, against consumerism, and in favor of throwing a blanket over homosexual activity within the clergy. He's not real sure about the Resurrection, about Christ's divinity, and a few other things that would have gotten him burned at the stake a few hundred years ago, but he's hot for a certain South American Earth Mother Goddess... , in his Christmas greetings to the Curia, the Vatican's central administration, cautioned against inflexible ideological positions that may impede the Church's progress, addressing concerns following the recent approval of blessings for same-sex couples.
At 87, the pontiff acknowledged the ongoing debate between progressives and conservatives, emphasising the need to avoid rigid ideologies.
Expressing a commitment to journeying forward, Pope Francis invoked the imagery of the Magi, urging Christians to follow the guiding light even on unexplored paths.
This comes in the wake of a divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... ruling allowing priests to administer blessings to same-sex couples under specific conditions, triggering both support and opposition within the Church.
While welcoming the pope's gesture, many conservatives voiced concerns, fearing it might challenge the foundations of faith and potentially lead to a Church schism.
Pope Francis, elected ten years ago, has consistently sought to foster inclusivity without altering traditional Church teachings on moral issues, particularly emphasising a welcoming stance towards the LGBT community.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2023 00:00 ||
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#5
^ #4 as in the Martin Luther 95 Theses?
Where he called out the Vatican over 500 years ago for its abuses and sins even then. Thus cementing the foundation for Protestant church growth.
#7
Friday afternoon: "We don't want your blessings!"
Saturday night: "Then again, your blessings are kinda cute."
Sunday morning: "We're here for your blessings."
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A newly-uncovered trove of documents detailing plans to create a Covid-like virus in China months before the pandemic make the 'lab leak almost certain', experts say.
The records - obtained now by FOIA requests - lay out a plan to 'engineer spike proteins' to infect human cells that would then be 'inserted into SARS-Covid backbones' at the infamous Wuhan virology lab from December 2018."
The proposal was made by the now-notorious EcoHealth Alliance, a New York nonprofit that channels US government grants abroad to fund these types of experiments.
Ultimately, the application was denied by the US Department of Defense, but critics say the plans laid out in the proposal serve as a 'blueprint' for how to create Covid. New documents show 2018 LAB WORK & FINDINGS. Leaving no doubt it was man made in a China lab.
Once again, the Governments and MSM so-called Conspiracy Theorists, were the actual Messengers of the Real NEWS.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[AOL - CBS] Three Washington state police officers were cleared of all charges Thursday in the death of Manuel "Manny" Ellis, a Black man, in 2020.
[Epoch Times] The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday invalidated the state's landmark Climate Protection Program (CPP), which aimed to slash greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel companies by 90 percent by 2050.
[GEO.TV] In the heart of Papua New Guinea, betel nut, a psychoactive substance, is deeply ingrained in daily life, offering a ritualistic awakening to millions, including civil servant David Taim.
[FoxNews] 'A storm like yesterday’s would render 80% of cars useless is, to say the least, ill-advised,' Democratic Rep Golden says.
[AFRICANEWS] 
[TheVerge] 
...Argentine liberation theologist, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He was elected pope in 2013. Rather than setting up shop in Avignon, where he belongs, the first Jesuit Pope chose to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse instead of the papal apartments. He is big on climate change, against consumerism, and in favor of throwing a blanket over homosexual activity within the clergy. He's not real sure about the Resurrection, about Christ's divinity, and a few other things that would have gotten him burned at the stake a few hundred years ago, but he's hot for a certain South American Earth Mother Goddess...
