Woman Safe … Car-Jacker Dead … Thanks To Citizen With A Gun

Police: Man Shoots, Kills Would-Be Carjacker Outside Store

 

 

 

” A shopper with a concealed weapons permit shot and killed a man who was trying to carjack a woman Saturday outside a Utah grocery store, officers said.

  The 31-year-old male shooter was in Macey’s parking lot in Orem, 45 miles south of Salt Lake City, when he heard a woman’s screams as she was being pulled from her SUV by the suspect, investigators said.

  The man told police he went to assist the woman, and the 27-year-old male suspect lunged at him in an attempt to grab his gun.

  The man fired one round at the suspect, hitting him in the chest. The suspect later died at a hospital.”

 

Yahoo News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Five States With The Highest Police Killing Rates Will Surprise You

The Five Deadliest Police States Of 2014

 

 

 

 

” If you had to guess which states had the most per-capita police involved deaths, would you include states like California, Texas, or New York? Or maybe Florida, Missouri, or Washington? Strange as it may seem, although these states do have many police involved deaths, they do not fall within the five deadliest.

  California has a population of approximately 38,802,500. In 2014 there were around 106 killings, which calculates to about 2.73 police related deaths per million residents (PRDPMR). Texas had a population of about 26,956,958, and 53 killings, calculates to about 1.97 PRDPMR. With a population of about 19,746,227 and 19 killings, New York’s rate of deaths from police officers is only 0.96 PRDPMR. Florida’s rate is 2.01 PRDPMR, Missouri’s is 2.14 PRDPMR, and Washington’s is 2.55 PRDPMR.”

Get the specifics at CopBlock.com

” Six things you can do to reduce the slaughter:

1. Write letters to your state legislators and city councils demanding that they require police to get trained on de-escalation strategies and less-than-lethal methods, and that police and sheriff’s departments enact stricter rules for using lethal force.
2. Vote out prosecutors that refuse to charge officers who needlessly take life.
3. Write your local police chiefs and sheriffs demanding that they hold their officers and deputies to higher standards when it comes to the use of force. Let them know that you will hold them accountable for any loss of life that results from the excessive use of force from members of their agency.
4. Always keep a video recording device with you, record every police encounter you see.
5. Email the link to this article to all of your friends.
6. Visit VictimsofPolice.com and look up the police related deaths that have recently occurred in your state. “

 

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Infant Survives 14 Hours Upside Down In Car Seat In Frigid Utah River

Baby Found Alive In Car 14 Hours After Crash In Utah River

 

 

 

 

 

” A baby survived a car crash in a frigid Utah river after being strapped in a car seat upside-down for about 14 hours before being found by a fisherman, officers said.

  The 18-month-old girl’s condition was upgraded from critical to stable but critical condition at a Salt Lake City hospital, but her 25-year-old mother, Lynn Groesbeck of Springville, was found dead in the car, police said Sunday.

  The fisherman discovered the car on its top about 12:30 p.m. Saturday in the Spanish Fork River in Spanish Fork, about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City, police Lt. Matt Johnson said.

  Investigators believe the wreck occurred about 10:30 p.m. Friday when a resident near the accident scene reported hearing something, Johnson said. The resident was unable to find anything out of the ordinary when checking the area near Provo.”

 

Yahoo News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Utah State Gov Suffers 10,000-Fold Increase In Cyber-Attacks Since NSA Opened Spy Facility

Massive Utah Cyberattacks — Up To 300 Million Per Day — May Be Aimed At NSA Facility

 

 

 

” Five years ago, Utah government computer systems faced 25,000 to 30,000 attempted cyberattacks every day.

  At the time, Utah Public Safety Commissioner Keith Squires thought that was massive. “But this last year we have had spikes of over 300 million attacks against the state databases” each day: a 10,000-fold increase.

  Why? Squires says it is probably because Utah is home to the new, secretive National Security Agency computer center, and hackers believe they can somehow get to it through state computer systems.

” I really do believe it was all the attention drawn to the NSA facility. In the cyberworld, that’s a big deal,” Squires told a legislative budget committee Tuesday. “I watched as those increases jumped so much over the last few years. And talking to counterparts in other states, they weren’t seeing that amount of increase like we were.” “

Read more

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Mia Love Wins In Utah

Meet Mia Love. You’ll Be Seeing A Lot More Of The Republicans’ First Black Congresswoman

 

 

 

 

” For at least half a century, the party of Lincoln has battled charges that it is racist, sexist and anti-immigrant.

  Today, voters from a conservative state made those arguments a little bit harder to make. In Utah, Mia Love became the first black Republican woman — and first Haitian American — elected to Congress.

  For the GOP — a house divided that faces significant demographic hurdles to winning the White House in 2016 even as it celebrates President Obama’s shellacking — this was huge. A party threatened with extinction among African Americans and immigrants now has someone to brag about in Washington. In a wave election less about fresh Republican ideas than fervid disapproval of all things presidential, Love’s compelling personal story is an oasis. She’s not just a black face in what’s often described as a party full of angry old white men. She’s a path forward.

  It’s hard to overstate how unlikely Love’s victory looked on paper. Utah is less than 1 percent black. Though more than 60 percent of the state’s population identifies as a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints, the church is just 3 percent black. Love, 38, is one of these few black Mormons — part of a church that, until 1978, didn’t let African Americans participate in all church activities and still hasn’t apologized for its racism. “

 

Washington Post

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fed Arrested After Threatening Uber Driver With His Service Pistol

Federal Law Enforcement Officer Threatens His Uber Driver With A Gun

 

 

 

 

 

” Uber drivers have a bad rep after making the news for attacking passengers, racially abusing them, sexually assaulting them or kidnapping them. Now, however, an Uber driver is the victim. In a recent confrontation, a driver found himself staring down the barrel of another man’s gun, as the man asked him whether he wanted “to live or die.” Making matters worse: After the assailant was arrested, it emerged that he was a cop.

  The driver, James Brothers, picked up Byron McDonald and three friends just over a week ago at a bar in Salt Lake City, according to KUTV. After dropping off McDonald’s friends, Brothers took McDonald to a hotel, at which point the passenger asked the driver, “Do you want to live or die?”

  Then McDonald put a gun to Brothers’ head. “

 

Daily Dot has the story of yet another case of government-bred arrogance and could someone please tell me why an agent of the Bureau Of Indian Affairs needs to be armed ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Utah Man Calls Suicide Hotline … SWAT Shows Up And Kills Him

Roy Officer-Involved Shooting Leaves One Man Dead

 

 

 

 

” A terrifying Tuesday morning in a Roy neighborhood turned tragic when police officers shot and killed a man in his garage at 3779 West, 5300 South in Roy. The Weber County Attorney’s Office is investigating it as a “suicide by cop.”

  The 35 year old man, who neighbors describe the as a quiet, friendly man, was divorced and now lived in the home with his girlfriend and her children. According to Detective Matthew Gwynn of the Roy City Police Department, the man called a suicide hotline around 4 a.m. and threatened to kill himself. The Weber County Consolidated Dispatch Center sent officers to the resident.

” There were people in the home at the time the call was placed,” Det. Gwynn told ABC4 News. “They left the home shortly thereafter.”

  Roy City Police and the Weber Metro SWAT Team tried to convince the man to surrender and get help but seven hours after the initial call, something dramatic occurred in the garage causing SWAT officers to open fire.”

 

Good4Utah.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Wondering Where To Retire ? Here Are The Five Senior- Friendliest States

The 5 Best States For Senior Citizens To Retire In

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

” Baby boomers may have provided the bulk of the productivity surge in this country during the past couple of decades, but now they’re retiring in unprecedented numbers. This is setting in motion a number of interesting scenarios.

  Some retirees are still recovering from the Great Recession swoon. Many are concerned about the Social Security funding gap, and some need their nest eggs to stretch further because people are living longer than ever these days.

  But for all retirees, choosing where to retire can be just as important as choosing when to retire.

 As we saw last weekend, more than a dozen U.S. states tax Social Security income either at the federal rate or at rates based on their own formulas. In addition, sales tax, property tax, and a bevy of other costs can vary throughout the country. Thus some states let senior citizens hang on to more of their hard-earned cash than others do.

  Thankfully, Bankrate has done the hard work for us. By using a number of factors that include tax burden, cost of living, access to healthcare, crime rate, and even weather, it has ranked the top states for senior citizens to retire in. According to Bankrate’s findings, here are the five best states for retirement, in ascending order: “

 

Read the rest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Man Arrested For Battling July 4th Brushfire That Was Endangering His Home

Utah Man Arrested For Extinguishing A Brush Fire

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

” A man was arrested for disorderly conduct and obstructing justice when he refused to stop spraying water on a brush fire that had ignited in a field behind his home.

  The incident happened on July 4th in a field located behind a row of houses. At approximately 9:30 p.m., some brush caught fire due to errant use of fireworks. Spectators quickly assisted and one woman called 9-1-1 for help.

“ An apparent spark lit a tree over there from an old orchard on fire,” said 36-year-old Santaquin resident, Jason Thornton. “Myself, my two nephews, and a few neighbors rushed to action, got our hoses out, contained the fire to one tree, waiting for the fire department to show up.”

  Mr. Thornton continued: “While fighting the fire, somebody said, ‘stop!’ I told them, ‘no’ in a very unpolite way. He told me again to stop. I said, ‘No, I’m manning this fire. I’m not stopping until the fire department gets here.’”

“ Then the man came over and put me in handcuffs and told me I was under arrest,” he said. “They gave me a citation for disorderly conduct and obstruction of justice.”

 

PoliceStateUSA has more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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SWAT Raids Former Utah AG’s Home Over Alleged “Campaign Finance Abuse”

Feds Perform Guns-Drawn SWAT Raid While Investigating Campaign Finance Allegation

 

 

 

” A prominent figure in Utah says that his children had guns pointed at them during a violent police raid to investigate an alleged white-collar crime. “If they’ll do it to me, they’ll do it to anybody,” said former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.

“ Law enforcement showed up in masks, 12 officers with bullet proof vests, assault rifles, burst through the door screaming and yelling at my kids,” Shurtleff said in an interview with Fox 13. He said that guns were pointed at his daughter and son, ages 16 and 20, in his suburban home while he was away.

“ They burst [in on] my little girl – my 17-year-old – going to the bathroom, screaming at her to get out of there,” recalled Shurtleff. “When she steps out there are four men in body armor with weapons pointed at her chest.”

“ These John Wayne-wannabe, freakin’ Clint Eastwood, Dirty Harry tactics are absolutely unacceptable and unneeded,” said Shurtleff on KSL Radio.”

 

 

    How is it that a simple allegation of campaign finance fraud merits a full-blown military response ? Regardless of the guilt or innocence of Mr’s Shurtleff and Swallow , what possible justification could there be to endanger the men’s families over minor white-collar crimes ?

While the district attorney and the Dept of Public Safety bend over backwards in their assertions that proper procedure was followed , it is that very procedure that we find questionable in the first place . What ever happened to knocking on the door to serve your warrant ?

 

 

” Mr. Gill is the current District Attorney for Salt Lake County and head of the investigation against Shurtleff. He defended the tactics used, according to KSL: “There are certain things that you have to do when you go into an area that is unfamiliar to you… This is what every citizen out there is subjected to when it comes down.”

  The Utah Department of Public Safety issued a statement about the raids. They said their agents “followed proper procedure” and “acted in accordance to policy and utilized the minimum force necessary to execute the warrants.”

 

 

   If middle of the night no-knock SWAT raids are “proper procedure” for virtually any warrant service then it is well past time to change that procedure . How many more innocents must be endangered and have their views of the police irretrievably altered to ones of Nazi storm troopers before we bring this travesty of statism to a halt ?

Thanks to PoliceStateUSA

 

Accountability Check

Utah Department of Public Safety
Phone: (801) 965-4445
Email: Contact

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hero Citizen Puts End To High Speed Police Chase With His Truck – Saves Children In Skatepark

Car Fleeing From Police Goes Through Park, Nearly Hits Children

 

 

 

 

 

 

” Police were involved in a pursuit of a car Saturday, and dramatic video from a FOX 13 News viewer shows the car speeding across the grass of Founders Park as children frantically move out of the way.

  The chase ended around 6:12 p.m. at 1500 S. Banbury Drive in Syracuse, and police officials said a minor had taken the vehicle without permission and officers sought the vehicle on a breach of trust.

  The 14-year-old male driving the car is from Sunset and had taken the vehicle from his grandfather in Duchesne County, and the grandfather reported the car stolen, according to a press release from the Syracuse Police Department. Police put out an attempt to locate, and police responded after a tipster spotted the car in Syracuse. The tipster heard the attempt to locate while using a police scanner app on a smart phone.

  Bryson Rowley was driving the truck, and he said he intentionally used his truck as a ram rod to stop the fleeing vehicle. Rowley provided the pictures and videos in this story, and though he did not wish to go on camera he said he acted to end the chase because he was afraid for the safety of his and other children at the park.

“ The person driving the truck could see it was turning back into the park, and he did not want the car to hit all of the children, or any of the children, and he actually pulled his truck in the way so the car collided with the truck,” said Officer Erin Behm with the Syracuse Police Department.”

 

Story continues

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mia Love Wins 78% Of The Vote To Become GOP Candidate For Utah’s 4th Congressional District

Mia Love Wins GOP Primary

 

 

 

” Mia Love, a former Saratoga Springs, Utah mayor and a favorite among the pro-liberty, pro-Constitution Tea Party movement, easily won the Republican primary to replace the retiring Democrat Congressman Jim Matheson, from Utah’s 4th congressional district.

  On Saturday, Mia Love easily defeated businessman Bob Fuehr by a 78% – 22% margin, and will now face Salt Lake attorney, Democrat Doug Owens for the seat in the general election.

  Love rose to stardom in 2012, when she barely lost to Matheson, by only 800 total votes, and promised a rematch.”

 

TPNN has more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Utah Woman Gave Herself Seven Abortions And Boxed Up Babies In Her Garage

Police Find Seven Dead Babies In Utah County Home

 

 

 

 

 

” Pleasant Grove police made a grisly discovery Saturday: seven dead infants, six of them in cardboard boxes.

  Megan Huntsman, 39, was arrested early Sunday morning on suspicion of six counts of murder.

  Police believe she gave birth to the babies then killed them over the past decade, according to a police news release.”

” On Saturday, police responded to a call from Huntsman’s ex-husband about a dead infant found inside a Pleasant Grove home that Huntsman lived in until 2011. Officers arrived and found the body of a newborn infant, who appeared to be full term, according to the release.

  Police obtained a search warrant for the home and found six more babies packaged in separate cardboard boxes inside the garage, said police Capt. Michael Roberts.

  Investigators learned that Huntsman allegedly gave birth to the infants, then killed them, over a 10 year period, the release adds. Her ex-husband is believed to be the father, but investigators are still working on DNA tests, Roberts said.”

    We guess that to the progressives out there this is ok , after all it’s nothing more than do-it-yourself abortion , right ?  Her body , her choice , what ?

Read on

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Utah Mom Buys Entire Stock Of Offensive T-Shirts From Pac-Sun

If You Are Concerned About The Decline Of Morals In America, You Should Cheer On This Mom

 

 

” In the eyes of many Americans, our culture has devolved to the point that even a trip to the mall is sullied by suggestive ads and inappropriate images. For one mother in Utah, a recent shopping excursion was the final straw.”

 

 

 

” As Judy Cox walked through a mall in Orem with her son, she noticed one particular storefront that immediately caught her attention.”

 

 

 

 

“ We were on our way to another store, we passed the PacSun store and I stopped dead in my tracks,” she recalled. A selection of four T-shirts depicting women in various stages of undress were prominently being displayed in the display window for all passersby to see.”

 

 

 

“ The bottom of one woman is completely exposed,” she explained, “uncovered, and it’s a very provocative pose she’s in.”

 

 

 

” While some may consider her outrage an overreaction, photos of the shirts in question were ruled too risqué to be shown on television. They were not, however, deemed inappropriate enough to warrant a less visible location in the popular store.”

   So the offending shirts were deemed inappropriate for viewing on the news broadcast yet were fine for all the world to see in the Pac-Sun window ? … Incredible … Good for you Ms Cox .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Maryland Pols Join Other States In Efforts To Deprive NSA Facilities Of Basic Utilities

Maryland Lawmakers Want To Cripple The NSA’s Headquarters

 

 

 

” Legislators in Maryland want to turn the lights out on the NSA — literally. A bill introduced last Thursday to its House of Delegates would bar state agencies, utilities, and pretty much anything that receives state funds from providing assistance to federal agencies that collect electronic data or metadata without a specific warrant to do so. Namely, the delegates are thinking of the National Security Agency, which is headquartered just outside their state’s capital.

  The legislation is nearly identical to bills introduced elsewhere across the country, such as California, and would result in state water and electrical utilities being unable to serve the NSA — a major headache, if there ever was one. “It does pretty much say we’re going to cut off water and electricity to the NSA,” Maryland Delegate Mike Smigiel, the bill’s primary sponsor, tells The Verge. Though cutting off water and electricity would have the most immediate impact, the legislation would also stop the NSA from using state universities for research, make any evidence the NSA gathers inadmissible in state courts, and effectively fire any state employee who helps the NSA.”

 

More at the Verge

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Watch Two Bull Elk Battle It Out In Utah Forest

Deer Hunter Catches Two Monster Elk In Epic Battle [VIDEO]

 

 

 

” An epic battle between two 6-point bull elk was caught on tape by a deer hunter in Utah.

  You know what they say, it never hurts to be prepared. That age-old saying is probably what was running through Jeremiah Moseley‘s mind as he captured this impressive up-close video of two bull elk going at it during the rut.

From the video’s owner:

  Sorry for the delay on my responses. These are Rocky Mountain Elk. I got this shot while hunting near Strawberry Reservoir in Utah on the 2013 General Muzzleloader deer hunt. “

 

 

Read more at Wide Open Spaces

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Utah Cop Kills Wife , Kids , Mother-In-Law & Self

Joshua Boren, Utah Officer, Kills Family And Self: Cops

 

 

 

” A 34-year-old officer with a small Utah police department shot and killed his wife, mother-in-law and two young children and turned the gun on himself, authorities said Friday.

  Spanish Fork police said the five were found dead about 11 p.m. Thursday, when co-workers reported Joshua Boren didn’t show up for his night shift as a patrol officer at the Lindon Police Department.

  Police who looked through the window saw blood on the carpet and shell casings in the front room of the two-story home, police said. When they went inside, they found Boren’s 55-year-old mother-in-law Marie King dead in a bedroom, and Joshua Boren and his immediate family dead in the bedroom next door.”

 

Tell us why only cops can be trusted with guns …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Utah Made It Easier For Cops To Seize Innocent People’s Property

 And Not A Single Lawmaker Voted Against It

 

 

” A new report published by the Libertas Institute, a free market think tank, reveals how a little-known new law greatly weakened legal protections for property owners facing civil forfeiture in Utah.  Unlike criminal forfeiture, with civil forfeiture, someone does not have to be convicted of or even charged with a crime to permanently lose their property.

  Sponsors of the bill, HB 384, presented their amendments as a mere “re-codification” of the state’s forfeiture law.  While some of the changes to Utah’s forfeiture laws might appear minor, they have significant consequences.”

 

Read more at Forbes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Amazing Grace Christmas House

Holdman Christmas

 

 

Uploaded on Dec 1, 2009

” Visit us at http://www.holdmanlighting.com

  The Amazing Grace Christmas House was located in Pleasant Grove, Utah and designed and programmed by Richard Holdman. A small little charity box placed in front of the display has raised more than $40,000 for the Utah Make-a-Wish Foundation. Thank you everybody for your support.

  The display started in 2006 and traffic became to much of an issue and is no longer running. Richard Holdman has gone on to create Holdman Lighting which now installs many animated lighting displays across the United States and around the world including Argentina, Russia, Korea, and Canada.

 Music is “Yule – Amazing Grace” and can be purchased right here: 

Amazon: http://bit.ly/ClubbingChristmasAM
iTunes: http://bit.ly/ClubbingChristmasIT
Spotify: http://bit.ly/ClubbingChristmasSP “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Yet Another New Dinosaur Find Unearthed In Utah

New Dinosaur ‘Siats Meekerorum’ Discovered, Kept Early Tyrannosaurs ‘In Check’

 

” A new species of dinosaur discovered in Utah is believed to be the third-largest predator found in North America.

Named Siats meekerorum, after the man-eating monster from the Ute tribal legend, the fossil belongs to a species of giant meat eaters known as carcharodontosaurs and is the second one discovered in North America.”

 

 

” “This thing is gigantic,” Lindsay Zanno, a paleontologist at North Carolina State University, who discovered the species, told Wired. “There’s simply nothing even close in this ecosystem to the size of this animal that could’ve been interpreted as an apex predator.

While the specimen was a juvenile that measured 30 feet long and weighed 9,000 pounds, the paleontologists estimate a full-grown Siats could have weighed up to 11,000 pounds, Discovery News reports.”

 

 

    We are living in exciting times in the world of paleontology as the new discoveries keep coming at a rapidly accelerating rate . Witness the discoveries announced over the past few weeks including one in the Gobi desert , the announcement of the discovery of the T-Rex’s “Bad Grampa” and now this one . 

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Editorial Exhorts Utahans To Shut Off NSA Data Center Water Supply

Op-Ed: Utahns Should Deny Water To NSA Center

 

 

” Like the eye of Sauron, the NSA’s new facility in Utah overlooks hundreds of thousands of people in the valley below. Perched on a mountainside fortress of concrete and barricades, the 1-million-square-foot complex exists solely to allow the NSA to “see all.”

In the wake of the Snowden leaks and widespread concern with the pervasive surveillance activities of the federal government, many Americans have been wondering how to fight back. Can an effective opposition even be mounted against the power of the NSA? What can be done to restore privacy and protect our rights?

The strategy to succeed is quite simple. When fully operational, the NSA facility is expected to require a staggering 1.7 million gallons of water every day to cool down the computers harvesting information on people worldwide. That water is supplied by the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District, a political subdivision of the state. Without it, the facility cannot function.

To defeat Sauron, Frodo had to take the One Ring and throw it into the pit of Mount Doom — the dark lord’s power base at the heart of Mordor — where it was originally forged. To defeat the NSA, we must also take the fight to the base of operations and turn off the water supply.”

 

   This is a marvelous idea . Does anyone know the legalities involved ? Can water be denied specific consumers ? if not total denial , what about rationing ? Two million gallons a day seems like a very environmentally unfriendly requirement . Where are the “greenies” ? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The “Bad Grampa” Of Tyrannosaurus Rex Unearthed

Lythronax Argestes: ‘King Of Gore’ Joins T Rex Family Tree

 

 

 

 

” A newly-discovered dinosaur, which has been christened “King of gore” by the scientists who have studied it, is the oldest known member of the dinosaur group that gave rise to the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex.

The 80m-year-old fossil of Lythronax argestes was found in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in the desert of southern Utah. The two-legged carnivorous beast was eight metres long and weighed around 2.5 tonnes. It had a head full of sharp teeth and lived during the Late Cretaceous period, between 95m and 65m years ago.”

 

 

 

” Lythronax, which derives from the Greek words lythron (gore) and anax(king), had a short, narrow snout, forward-pointing eyes and a wide back to its skull – similar in shape to its later relative T rex. The second part of the animal’s name, argestes, is derived from the Greek poet Homer’s south-west wind, a reference to the geographic location of the fossil.

Palaeontologists had thought that this type of tyrannosaurid dinosaur only evolved around 70m years ago, but the Lythronax discovery pushes the earliest appearance of these creatures back at least 10m years.”

 

 

   The Guardian has the full story .This is very cool stuff and it is the second great paleontological find announced this week .First in the Gobi desert and now in Utah . You can read more about T-Rex’s “Bad Grampa” here , here , here and here .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Meltdowns Hobble NSA Data Center

Investigators Stumped By What’s Causing Power Surges That Destroy Equipment

 

 

” Chronic electrical surges at the massive new data-storage facility central to the National Security Agency’s spying operation have destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of machinery and delayed the center’s opening for a year, according to project documents and current and former officials.

There have been 10 meltdowns in the past 13 months that have prevented the NSA from using computers at its new Utah data-storage center, slated to be the spy agency’s largest, according to project documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Rise of the Warrior Cop

Is It Time To Reconsider The Militarization Of Police?

 

 

” On Jan. 4 of last year, a local narcotics strike force conducted a raid on the Ogden, Utah, home of Matthew David Stewart at 8:40 p.m. The 12 officers were acting on a tip from Mr. Stewart’s former girlfriend, who said that he was growing marijuana in his basement. Mr. Stewart awoke, naked, to the sound of a battering ram taking down his door. Thinking that he was being invaded by criminals, as he later claimed, he grabbed his 9-millimeter Beretta pistol.

The police say that they knocked and identified themselves, though Mr. Stewart and his neighbors said they heard no such announcement. Mr. Stewart fired 31 rounds, the police more than 250. Six of the officers were wounded, and Officer Jared Francom was killed. Mr. Stewart himself was shot twice before he was arrested. He was charged with several crimes, including the murder of Officer Francom.

In my own research, I have collected over 50 examples in which innocent people were killed in raids to enforce warrants for crimes that are either nonviolent or consensual (that is, crimes such as drug use or gambling, in which all parties participate voluntarily). These victims were bystanders, or the police later found no evidence of the crime for which the victim was being investigated. They include Katherine Johnston, a 92-year-old woman killed by an Atlanta narcotics team acting on a bad tip from an informant in 2006; Alberto Sepulveda, an 11-year-old accidentally shot by a California SWAT officer during a 2000 drug raid; and Eurie Stamps, killed in a 2011 raid on his home in Framingham, Mass., when an officer says his gun mistakenly discharged. Mr. Stamps wasn’t a suspect in the investigation.”

 

 

READ THE WHOLE THING

 

 

 

 

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