Kerry Calls For 'Ultimate Resolution' Of Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

(rferl.org) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has called for "an ultimate resolution" of the decades-old Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Kerry made the appeal during talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on March 31 in Washington. The Azerbaijani leader is in the U.S. capital for a nuclear security summit.

Aliyev thanked the United States for trying to end the conflict but said it could only be resolved through a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for the "immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops" from Azerbaijan.

The conflict broke out in the dying years of the Soviet Union but efforts to reach a permanent settlement have failed despite mediation led by France, Russia, and the United States.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies inside Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenians.

Kerry also highlighted Azerbaijan's role in European energy security as a leader in developing the Southern Gas Corridor to bring gas from the Caspian region to Europe.

Kerry also thanked Aliyev for Azerbaijan’s contributions to NATO’s mission in Afghanistan.

The two also discussed democracy and human rights issues and Kerry welcomed Azerbaijan's recent positive steps and urged further progress.(FullStory)
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Related: Hawaii Recognizes Nagorno Karabakh Republic’s Independence

Emergency Over Ebola Has Ended, W.H.O. Says

(NewYorkTimes) - The Ebola epidemic that killed thousands of people in West Africa is no longer an international public health emergency, the World Health Organization announced on Tuesday.

Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the W.H.O., said in a news briefing that she was accepting the recommendation of an emergency committee, which concluded that West African countries had the ability to contain the small number of new cases that continued to arise, and that “the likelihood of international spread is low.”

Dr. Chan called on nations that had imposed restrictions on interaction with the three countries to “immediately lift any ban on travel and trade.”

The Ebola outbreak, ignited in Guinea in December 2013, ultimately sickened more than 28,000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing more than 11,300. But the W.H.O. said in a statement that all three countries had made it successfully through a 42-day observation period and a 90-day surveillance period without any cases linked to the original transmission chain for the virus. The last country to achieve that status was Guinea, which completed the 90-day period two days ago.

“The original Ebola outbreak has come to an end. The original chains of transmission are terminated now,” said Dr. Robert Steffen, a communicable disease expert who is vice chairman of the W.H.O. emergency committee.

Still, flare-ups of cases continue, an expected consequence that has occurred with other Ebola outbreaks, W.H.O. officials said. The most recent is a cluster in Guinea of five confirmed and three probable cases, which the W.H.O. said it was treating as a moderate-level crisis. In all, there have been 12 new clusters of cases in the three countries since the original transmission chains were extinguished, but they have been occurring less frequently, the W.H.O. said. (Full Story)

Japan slaughters pregnant whales, Australia warns of legal action

(Sydneymorningherald) - Japanese whalers have shipped home 333 dead whales - including about 200 pregnant cows - prompting Australia to declare anew it is considering legal action over the slaughter.

The whalers, who claim their annual whale hunt is for "scientific research", admitted some of the harpooned minke whales had been expecting twins.

Japan's Institute for Cetacean Research said the prevalence of pregnant whales indicated the health of the population.

Japan defied a ruling by the international court to stop whaling, resuming its hunt over the summer months in the face of international condemnation.

The court had ruled Japan's whale hunt illegal in a case brought by Australia, but Tokyo announced new guidelines in November to justify killing more than 4000 whales in the next 12 years, and has since withdrawn from the court's jurisdiction.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Australia would continue to push for Japan to comply with its international obligations and the principles set out in the International Court of Justice's judgment.

Asked about the prospect of Australia taking further legal action, Ms Bishop said the government was "considering all avenues to achieve compliance with the court's decision".

Japan's insistence on the right to kill whales coincides with the country's drive for closer ties to Australia.

Tokyo is bidding for the multibillion-dollar contract to build Australia's fleet of 12 submarines to enhance what Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called a "special relationship".

Anti-whaling activists Sea Shepherd had attempted to disrupt Japan's 115-day whale hunt over the summer, but said in February the group's vessel Steve Irwin had been unable to locate the four-ship fleet.

Read more: www.smh.com.au

Burundi accuses Rwanda of trying to export genocide

(Telegraph.co.uk) - Burundi's ruling party has accused Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, of seeking to export genocide, as relations between the two neighbours deteriorate further.

In a statement releaed on Sunday, the head of the CNDD-FDD party said Mr Kagame had previously "experimented" with genocide, referring to the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which about 800,000 people were killed, mostly ethnic Tutsis.

"The genocide laboratory is in Rwanda because President Kagame, having experimented there, (wants) to export it to Burundi (to) play a minor imperialist," wrote Pascal Nyabenda, party president.

Ties between the Great Lakes region nations are already at a low ebb, with Burundi and the United Nations both accusing Rwanda of supporting Burundian rebels.

Mr Nyabenda also claimed that some European governments supply arms and funds to the Rwandan leader, who he said was responsible for "recruiting and training young Burundians in refugee camps in Rwanda, so that they can return home to commit acts of genocide".

The ruling party chief went on to criticise the Catholic Church which recently called for a dialogue between Kigali and Bujumbura to help de-escalate the growing crisis.

Mr Nyabenda also condemned foreign journalists for taking up the cause of "terrorists", the term used by the ruling party to refer to opponents of the government, both armed and peaceful.

Burundi has been in political crisis since April last year when President Pierre Nkurunziza controversially decided to run for a third term, which he then won in a July election.
(FullStory)

Kyrgyzstan: Uzbeks pull back from tense border area

(FoxNews) BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan – Kyrgyz officials say Uzbekistan has pulled back troops and equipment from a contested area of the countries' border.

Tensions between the former Soviet Central Asian neighbors grew last week after Kyrgyzstan accused Uzbekistan of building up its military presence along the border after Kyrgyzstan moved to regain control of a water reservoir in a contested region.

The move led to concerns about a rising potential for violence. Ethnic tension between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz has simmered for years. In 2010, at least 400 people died in ethnic clashes in the Kyrgyz city of Osh.

The Kyrgyz State Border Service reported Saturday that Uzbekistan had pulled back from the Chalasart area of the disputed border.

Some 300 kilometers (190 miles) of the border has never been clearly demarcated.

Deal reached to boost California's minimum wage to $15, avoiding ballot box battle

(latimes) - Lawmakers and labor unions have struck a tentative deal to raise the statewide minimum wage to $10.50 an hour next year and then gradually to $15, averting a costly political campaign this fall and possibly putting California at the forefront of a national movement.

The deal was confirmed Saturday afternoon by sources close to the negotiations who would speak only on condition of anonymity until Gov. Jerry Brown makes a formal announcement as early as Monday.

The minimum wage compromise ends a long debate between the Democratic governor and some of the state's most powerful labor unions. For Brown, it's political pragmatism; numerous statewide polls have suggested voters would approve a minimum wage proposal — perhaps even a more sweeping version — if given the chance.

According to a document obtained by The Times, the negotiated deal would boost California's statewide minimum wage from $10 an hour to $10.50 on Jan. 1, 2017, with a 50-cent increase in 2018 and then $1-per-year increases through 2022. Businesses with fewer than 25 employees would have an extra year to comply, delaying their workers receiving a $15 hourly wage until 2023.

Future statewide minimum wage increases would be linked to inflation, but a governor would have the power to temporarily block some of the initial increases in the event of an economic downturn.

Mattel Releases New Male Barbie To Inspire Girls To Imagine Holding Highest Leadership Positions

(TheOnion) EL SEGUNDO, CA―In a continued effort to make its iconic line of dolls more representative of today’s culture, Mattel announced the release Friday of its first male Barbie, which it hopes will inspire girls to dream about what it’s like to hold a top-ranking job in the workforce.

According to a press release from the toy manufacturer, the 12-inch-tall male figurine comes with a bespoke gray suit, polished black wingtips, and a plush leather chair, allowing girls to pretend that they too might one day be able to reach a powerful executive position in whatever profession they choose.

“When young girls play with Barbie, we don’t want there to be any limits on what they can imagine possible, and that’s exactly why we created the first-ever male version of the doll,” said Mattel CEO Christopher Sinclair, noting that while previous Barbies have served to model various careers for girls, none has let them picture what it’s like to rise to the highest rung of any field they choose. “With this new Barbie, girls can make-believe they’re the one who actually calls the shots, whether they’re pretending to lead a major corporate merger, direct a hot startup in Silicon Valley, or oversee a well-funded research lab.”

Added Sinclair, “Girls who play with this doll can finally imagine what it’s like at the very pinnacle of the business, financial, legal, tech, media, political, academic, military, and entertainment sectors.”


Top officials at Mattel told reporters that the latest version of the doll will encourage girls to “take their imagination to new heights” by making up stories in which they receive a salary commensurate with the work they do, get put on a fast track to an executive-level position, don’t have to worry about missing out on a big career opportunity due to a pregnancy, are perceived as competent by their coworkers, and have their ideas taken seriously. (Full Story)

U.N. tribunal finds former Bosnia Serb leader guilty of genocide

(washingtonpost) Serb leader was found guilty of genocide and other charges on Thursday for his role in deadly campaigns during the Bosnian war in the 1990s, including the massacres of thousands in Srebrenica, as an international tribunal announced a long-awaited reckoning in Europe’s bloodiest chapter since World War II.

Radovan Karadzic was found guilty of 10 charges that touched on many of the atrocities and ethnic-cleansing policies that stunned the world as Bosnia became a crucible for the rivalries and fears that tore apart Yugoslavia.

Among the findings against Karadzic involved the worst systematic slaughter of the war: the slayings of 8,000 Muslim men and boys outside the Srebrenica enclave near the close of the three-year Bosnian conflict.

Karadzic, 70, was sentenced to 40 years in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which is nearing the end of its investigations of alleged atrocities and other crimes from the country’s meltdown. In total, more than 100,000 people died in the three-sided Bosnian conflict among Bosnian Serbs, ethnic Croats and Muslims.

The court’s ruling placed widespread blame on Karadzic, who it said directed murders, purges and other abuses against civilians, including the 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, in which Serb gunners and snipers fired nearly daily from surrounding ridges.

Karadzic — a Bosnian Serb political leader and commander of military forces — claimed he was seeking only to protect ethnic Serbs during the war. A legal adviser to Karadzic said he will appeal the court ruling.

The proceedings of the tribunal at The Hague, which is backed by the United Nations, have been closely watched as a potentially significant step in applying international law to investigations of alleged war crimes and other abuses against civilians.

“This is a momentous day for international justice, but also for those in Bosnia who lost husbands and wives, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters in a coordinated campaign of violence,” said Susannah Sirkin, director of international policy and partnerships at Physicians for Human Rights, a group that was involved in exhuming some of Srebrenica’s mass graves.

Beetle's chemical signal tells mate, 'Honey, I'm not in the mood'

 

(Reuters) When a female "burying beetle" is focused on caring for babies and not making new ones, she releases a chemical signal to her libidinous mate that says in no uncertain terms, "Honey, I'm not in the mood."

Scientists described on Tuesday how these females employ an anti-aphrodisiac chemical known as a pheromone during a three-day period critical for raising offspring to tell the male she is temporary infertile and prevent him from trying to copulate.

The study focused on a beetle species, Nicrophorus vespilloides, known for burying carcasses of small animals like birds and rodents as food for their larvae. It provides insight into how animals change their behavior to provide care for their young, in this instance favoring parenting over sexual activity to produce new offspring.

"Our study helps to understand animal family life and how it is coordinated between family members," said biologist Sandra Steiger of Germany's University of Ulm, who led the study published in the journal Nature Communications.

"It is kind of intriguing that such mechanisms exist in animals and that animal parents synchronize their mating and parental-care behavior for their own benefit and that of the children," Steiger added.

Burying beetles are found mainly in temperate regions of Europe, Asia and North America. The species in this study is up to about eight-tenths of an inch long (2 cm) with a black body marked with bright orange patches. (Full Story)

ConAgra to disclose GMOs on labels throughout U.S.

(Reuters)

ConAgra Foods Inc on Tuesday joined other food giants in plans to use labels that disclose the presence of genetically modified organisms or GMOs in its food throughout the United States.

ConAgra and other food companies such as Campbell Soup Co , General Mills Inc and Kellogg Co have decided to use such labels nationwide, finding it to be the easiest way to comply with a Vermont law.

In 2014, Vermont became the first U.S. state to pass a law requiring food companies to label GMOs on their products, which will come into effect in July.

ConAgra said while it believed consumers should be informed as to what is in their food, addressing labeling requirements separately, just for the state of Vermont would be a costly affair. (bit.ly/1T5CH4A)

"With a multitude of other states currently considering different GMO labeling requirements, the need for a national, uniform approach in this area is as critical as ever. That's why we continue to urge Congress to pass a national solution as quickly as possible," the company said in a statement.

The U.S. Senate, last week, blocked a bill that would nullify state and local efforts requiring food makers to label products made with genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, as the industry races to stop the Vermont law from taking effect July 1.

6-Year-Old Girl Taken From Longtime California Foster Family for Being 1/64 Native American

(nbcnews) A 6-year-old girl was removed from the California home of the foster family she has lived with for four years because she has a tiny sliver of Native American heritage — despite resistance from her foster parents and their tens of thousands of supporters.

Rusty and Summer Page of Santa Clarita, California, have long fought to gain custody of Lexi, 6, who is 1.56 percent Choctaw Native American. That figure means that Lexi's home placement is dictated by the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978. 

That law "seeks to keep American Indian children with American Indian families," according to its own language.

The child's birth parents struggled with substance abuse, according to court documents. Her father, who had a criminal history, never lived on a Choctaw reservation and didn't have any social, political, or cultural ties to the tribe, according to the court documents. But officials determined that Lexi is 1/64th Choctaw based on his ancestry. (Full Story)

US: Native American tribes steadily gaining reservation lands

BOSTON — Native American tribes have been steadily gaining lands under President Barack Obama's administration.

Nearly 400,000 acres have been placed into trust for tribes since Obama took office in 2009, according to data from the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

And more lands set aside for tribes are likely on the way.

The president has pledged to place a total of 500,000 acres into trust for tribes before his tenure ends. That's more than double the roughly 233,000 acres placed into trust during the prior tenure of President George W. Bush.

John Dossett, general counsel to the D.C.-based National Congress of American Indians, said the administration has been more proactive than prior ones in speeding up an application process that can sometimes take decades.

But it remains to be seen whether the next administration will have the same commitment, he said. Roughly 525,000 acres of land that tribes are seeking to place into trust are still pending decisions, according to the interior department.

"This administration has really heard from tribes that the process is much too slow," Dossett said. "It can certainly be better, though. It should happen much, much faster."

Native American lands collectively represent about 56 million acres — a territory roughly the size of Minnesota, Dossett said. (Full Story)

Fast-food CEO says he's investing in machines because the government is making it difficult to afford employees

(BusinessInsider) The CEO of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's has visited the fully automated restaurant Eatsa — and it's given him some ideas on how to deal with rising minimum wages.

"I want to try it," CEO Andy Puzder told Business Insider of his automated restaurant plans. "We could have a restaurant that's focused on all-natural products and is much like an Eatsa, where you order on a kiosk, you pay with a credit or debit card, your order pops up, and you never see a person."

Puzder's interest in an employee-free restaurant, which he says would be possible only if the company found time as Hardee's works on its northeastern expansion, has been driven by rising minimum wages across the US.

"With government driving up the cost of labor, it's driving down the number of jobs," he says. "You're going to see automation not just in airports and grocery stores, but in restaurants."

Puzder has been an outspoken advocate against raising the minimum wage, writing two op-eds for The Wall Street Journal on how a higher minimum wage would lead to reduced employment opportunities. (Full Story)

Added Reading:
Restaurant CEOs Make More Money in Half a Day Than Their Employees Make in a Year

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So Carl's Jr. can invest in robots but can't raise their worker wages or invest in their workers?  What would happen if the CEO of Car's Jr was paid the minimum wage of $7.25? Let's make it happen.

Nebraska Hate Crime Law Scrutinized By State Supreme Court

Nebraska’s hate crime law needs clarification from the state’s Supreme Court, according to attorneys on both sides of a supposed fake assault case under appeal.

Mexico City bans 1.1M cars in 1st smog alert in 11 years

(foxnews) MEXICO CITY – Authorities banned more than 1 million cars from the roads and offered free subway and bus rides to coax people from their vehicles as Mexico City's first air pollution alert in 11 years stretched into a third day Wednesday.

Officials advised people to limit outdoor activity due to high ozone levels that were nearly double acceptable limits in the sprawling capital, which lies in a high-altitude valley ringed by smog-trapping volcanic mountains.

Amid a muddy brown haze, some residents covered their mouths with scarves or paper masks as they moved through the streets. Some schools kept kids indoors during recess.

Environment Secretary Alejandro Pacchiano said if conditions don't improve, further measures may be considered such as suspending industrial activity at factories.

Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera told Televisa news that about 1.1 million cars in the Valley of Mexico, including nearly 450,000 in the capital, were ordered off the streets under the restrictions.

According to the National Statistics Institute about 4.7 million vehicles were registered in the capital in 2014, the most recent year for which figures are available.

Mexico City used to regularly reach high smog levels, but air quality has improved significantly since the 1990s. Among other measures, rules were put in place that aimed to limit the circulation of older, more polluting vehicles, and obliged car owners to get regular smog checks.

However a court relaxed those restrictions last year in a ruling that authorities and environmentalists blame for a rise in traffic. Pacchiano said that decision put an extra 1.4 million cars a day on the streets. (Full Story)

New York City eases public drinking and urination laws before St Patrick's Day

(msnnews) - On Thursday, hundreds of thousands of partiers will take to New York City streets, awash in a sea of green beer, novelty T-shirts and cheap plastic beadsto follow long-held St Patrick’s Day tradition. But for the first time in recent history, those who decide to consume alcohol or relieve themselves on the streets won’t be risking arrest in the process, according to the city.

Under a new joint initiative between the New York police department and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, so-called quality of life violations like public urination and public consumption of alcohol will no longer expose citizens to the possibility of criminal charges. Instead, these crimes will be handled exclusively by issuing offenders a summons. The plan was announced on 1 March, and went into effect 7 March, just 10 days before the notoriously spirituous and rowdy holiday.

The DA’s office described the policy as one that will allow “the NYPD to devote its resources to investigating serious crimes, while further reducing the backlog of cases in criminal court”. An internal review by the office determined that it could keep as many as 10,000 New Yorkers out of the system annually.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio called the plan “an intuitive and modern solution” that would “help safely prevent unnecessary jail time for low-level offenses”.

Even New York police commissioner Bill Bratton, the pioneer of so-called “broken windows” policing that targets minor crimes as a tactic to prevent larger ones, expressed support. “This new policy in Manhattan will save valuable police resources … without jeopardizing the public safety,” Bratton said.

The announcement came just a few weeks after city council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito announced a sweeping criminal justice reform proposal in her state of the city address that would decriminalize quality of life offenses citywide and purge as many as 1.5m old summons warrants from the city’s books. (Full Story)

Htin Kyaw voted Myanmar’s next president

- Aung San Suu Kyi’s close aide, Htin Kyaw, has been voted Myanmar's next president by parliament.

He won with 360 of the 652 votes cast.

In second place was military-nominated Myint Swe, who received 213 votes, followed by the other NLD candidate, Henry Van Thio who got 79 votes.

They will serve as first vice-president and second vice-president respectively.

After his acceptance of the position U Htin Kyaw said, “This (victory) is achieved by the goodwill and love of the citizens. In fact, it is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's victory.”

- See more at: mizzima.com

Windows 7 users complain of unprovoked Windows 10 auto-upgrades

(pcworld) - As Microsoft auto-upgrades more PCs to Windows 10, some users are complaining that they weren’t adequately notified.

Reports of unwanted Windows 10 upgrades have been circulating for the past few days on Reddit and Twitter, after the last Patch Tuesday. These users say they never approved or initiated the upgrade, and were dragged away from their Windows 7 (or perhaps Windows 8) installs anyway.

This is all part of Microsoft’s plan, of course. Last October, the company announced that it would reclassify Windows 10 as a “Recommended” update from older versions starting in early 2016, at which point many more users would get the upgrade without explicit permission. That reclassification began on February 1, and auto-upgrades have been rolling out ever since. If complaints are reaching a higher volume now, perhaps it’s because the rollout is getting more aggressive.

Here’s what the Recommended update looks like, according to ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley: First, users will receive a notification saying their PCs are scheduled to receive Windows 10 in the next three or four days. Users can click a small link to cancel or postpone the update, but simply closing the window will cause the notification to appear again one hour before the scheduled update time. If users don’t cancel or postpone within that timeframe, the update will begin automatically.

At that point, the only way to back out of the Windows 10 update is to “Decline” the End User License Agreement that appears during the installation. This will cause the system to roll back to the previous Windows version (though this is a somewhat time-consuming process).

For users who haven’t upgraded yet, it’s possible to avoid installing Windows 10 by heading to Windows Update in the Control Panel, and unchecking the box under Recommended updates, which reads “Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates.” A registry tweak can help prevent Microsoft from sending upgrade reminders in the future. (Full Story)

Satanic killings sweep Mexico, call for mass exorcism

(SPUTNIKNEWS) — Mexico is being swept by a wave of satanic ritual killings with exorcists saying there is an unprecedented demand for their services.

Father José Antonio Fortea, a leading Mexican exorcist, who once ordered the mass exorcism of the whole country, has warned of an increase in satanic ritual killings.

He said that “devil worship” stemmed from the so-called cult of Santa Muerte, depicted as a human corpse with all the flesh picked off the bones, and dressed like a bride for her wedding.

The name means “Holy Death” – and it harks back to the days when to be sacrificed to the Aztec gods was considered the greatest honor.

Read more at wnd.com

A dozen states are considering getting rid of daylight saving time. Is that a good thing?

- As Americans brace to lose an hour of sleep this weekend in the name of energy saving, marking the beginning of daylight saving time, nearly a dozen states are considering abandoning the whole clock-shifting practice altogether.

States like Alaska and Rhode Island are considering bills that would place them squarely in one time zone, without the hassle of falling back every November and springing forward every March. Right now only two states, Arizona and Hawaii, rebuff the practice.

Ending the practice of switching clocks would probably be a good thing: Numerous studies have shown that shifting the clock forward affects our health, with rates of heart attacks, traffic accidents, and workplace injuries all seeing an uptick in the few days following the beginning of daylight saving time.

The question is in which directions should states move — permanently back, or permanently forward? (Full Story)

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Daylight Saving doesn't work. The practice needs to scraped altogether. Moving clocks ahead one hour doesn't make it lighter out. That's not how the sun works..

​Do Walmart's 'always low prices' spread to nearby houses?

(cbsnews) - In American retailing, Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT) are the two giants battling it out for consumers' wallets, with the former representing low-cost convenience and the latter the promise of style at affordable prices.

While shoppers might think of themselves as either die-hard Target fans or Walmart patrons, there's another way the two retailers are dividing America: real estate prices. Homes located near Walmart stores may be getting a bit of the Walmart slogan rubbing off on them -- "always low prices" -- while houses near Targets experience much higher appreciation, according to a new study from RealtyTrac.

Homeowners near Walmarts who sold their properties in 2015 saw a 16 percent price appreciation since they first bought their houses, with the average value of a Walmart-area home $178,249, the study found. So what about homes located close to a Target? The "tar-zhay" glamour apparently extends to nearby residential properties, given that homeowners saw a 27 percent price appreciation and average property values of $307,286, or 72 percent higher than homes near Walmart locations.

Of course, this could be a chicken-and-egg question, in that it's debatable about whether the retailer is influencing nearby home prices, or whether the home values influenced the retailer's decision to build in that location.

Both retailers target price-conscious consumers, but there are some serious differences in their typical shoppers. Take a look at the average shopper at Walmart: she's white, 50 years old, and has annual household income of more than $53,000. The typical shopper at Target, on the other hand, is 45 years old and has annual income of about $65,000.

Target, then, may be choosing more upscale locations for its stores, while Walmart might be looking to move closer to its shoppers, who might live in lower-priced houses given their lower income than Target customers.

Then again, the Walmart/Target effect on home prices might reflect a trend in American communities toward economic segregation, which is when the wealthier tend to cluster together, making it tougher for lower-income Americans to find entry into those communities. Wealthier consumers might pay more to be closer to their favorite shops, including Target and expensive grocery stores like Whole Foods.

Buyers who are concerned about their housing valuations might want to look for homes near Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, given they tend to have more rapid price appreciation, housing-data company Zillow found last year.

Still, if you don't live near a Target or Whole Foods, don't despair. There's actually an upside to living near a Walmart, RealtyTrac found: lower property taxes. Walmart-adjacent homes have an average property tax of $3,146, or less than half of what homeowners near Target pay. (Source)

Is America Becoming an Authoritarian State?

(thetrumpet) - For almost eight years, the United States has been ruled by a president with the mantra of “We can’t wait for Congress to do its job, so where they won’t act, I will.” During his 2014 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama told both houses of Congress of his decision to go it alone in areas where they refused to act according to his satisfaction. One would think an announcement in such blatant violation of America’s tripartite system of checks and balances would elicit an outcry or at least shocked silence. Instead, the floor of the room erupted into thunderous applause.

It really looked like America’s congressional lawmakers were delighted at the notion of a president usurping the checks and balances at their expense!

In the months following his historic announcement, President Obama went on to modify various provision of the Affordable Care Act with barely a pretense of legality. He launched a military campaign in Libya without congressional approval. He appointed high-level “czars,” evading the constitutional requirement that the Senate confirm high-level government officials. He even unilaterally enacted new legislationon immigration reform via executive order.

President Obama has been unapologetic about his record of executive overreach. During the summer of 2014, in a speech in front of Key Bridge, the president taunted his critics: “Middle-class families can’t wait for Republicans in Congress to do stuff. So sue me.”

Georgetown law professor Jonathan Turley was one of the few legal minds at the time warning of the danger behind this executive power grab. “The center of gravity in our system, our three-branch system, is moving and we’re creating this all-powerful presidency, this type of über-presidency,” he told Sean Hannity in an interview. “The key to a Madisonian system is that nobody has enough power to go it alone, that was the genius of James Madison. But we’re seeing the rise of a new model of presidency, and I believe that supporters of President Obama will rue the day when they stay silent in the face of this kind of concentration of power.”

America has moved into a dangerous era where the only constraints on presidential power are political, not constitutional! (Full Story)

Related: Is America a State Sponsor of Terrorism?

Man Suspected of Five Murders in Kansas, Missouri in Custody

Kansas & Missouri need to control their borders.. 

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP/KMOX) – A man suspected of fatally shooting four people at his neighbor’s home in Kansas before killing another man about 170 miles away in a rural Missouri house was taken into custody early Wednesday morning after an extensive manhunt, the Missouri Highway Patrol said.

The Highway Patrol told the Kansas City Star that Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino was arrested in Montgomery Co., Missouri. The suspect was found lying face down on a hill just north of Interstate 70 and no shots were fired, the newspaper reported. That location is near a McDonald’s and several motels.

“He looked exhausted,” Sgt. James Hedrick said.

Serrano-Vitorino, a Mexican national who authorities said was in the country illegally, is accused of fatally shooting four men late Monday night at his neighbor’s home in Kansas City, Kansas. One of those men called police before he died. He was also wanted in connection with the shooting death of 49-year-old Randy Nordman in Montgomery County.

Representatives for the Missouri Highway Patrol and Kansas City, Kansas, police department could not immediately be reached by The Associated Press.

Saudi Arabia: Panel of scientists admits women are mammals, yet "not human"

Riyadh | In an unprecedented ruling, a panel of Saudi scientists has concluded that women are actually mammals, granting them the same rights as other mammal species such as camels, dromedaries and even goats.

The verdict, which fell just hours before the International Women’s Day, is considered “historic” by some experts and advocacy groups for women’s rights.

“This is a great leap forward for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia,” concludes Jane Austin, spokeswoman for the Women’s Liberation Action Network. “It may seem too little, too late, but it is truly a milestone event for all women in the region,” she says, visibly excited. “From now on, women will be considered as members of the mammal class, whereas before women shared the legal status of an object, similar to that of a home appliance,” she admits.

Body fat may be bigger health danger than body size

(upi.com) March/07/16- People who have more body fat -- regardless of their size - may have a higher risk of dying early than people whose bodies have less fat, new research suggests.

In contrast, having a high body-mass index -- a measure of weight in relation to height, often used to gauge obesity -- was not associated with early death in the study.

The investigators said the findings support the idea that BMI is a fairly crude measure that may not reflect a person's body composition, or be a good indicator of health.

Someone with a lot of muscle mass, for example, may have a high BMI and, technically, fall into the "overweight" category, explained researcher Dr. William Leslie.

So the relationship between body size and health "is more nuanced than the number on your bathroom scale," said Leslie, a professor of medicine and radiology at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, Canada.

"It's important to be attuned to what you're made of, rather than just how much you weigh," Leslie said.

The findings, published online March 8 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, may offer one explanation for the so-called "obesity paradox."

Russia ‘trying to oust Angela Merkel by inciting unrest against refugees in Germany’

(Independent.co.uk) - Russia is trying to oust German chancellor Angela Merkel through a propaganda network aimed at provoking anger over the refugee crisis, according to Nato’s most senior expert on strategic communications.

Nato analysts have reportedly identified these attempts to topple the German leader, who has been a leading advocate of economic sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Jānis Sārts, director of Nato’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, told the Observer it had gathered evidence of Russia interfering in Germany against Merkel, adding that Russia already had a track record for funding extremist forces in Europe.

Mr Sārts said: “[Russia] is establishing a network that can be controlled. You can use it as they have tried to do in Germany, combined with the legitimate issue of refugees, to undercut political processes in a very serious way.

“Angela Merkel has been a very adamant supporter of continued sanctions against Russia if it was just punishment, that would be OK – but it is testing whether they can build on pre-existing problems and create a momentum where there is political change in Germany.

“I think they test whether they can – in such a big country, with not so many vulnerabilities in normal times – actually create a circumstance through their influence where there is a change of top leadership. They are using Russian speakers, social media, trying to build on the existing fault lines. Use the far right narrative and exploit that.

“In general terms, you can trace Russian funding to the extreme forces in Europe. Either left or right – as long as they are extreme, they are good to come into the Russian picture as of possible use in their tactics. (Full Story)

Tesla has one huge advantage over every other car company (tsla)

(oakridger.com)  Tesla punches above its weight, in terms of how well known it is. This is a company that until late last year was building one car in one factory. Now it's building ... two cars in one factory.

But Tesla's every move, from the ups and downs if its stock price to the tweets of its celebrity CEO, Elon Musk, is carefully followed and scrutinized by Tesla fans, Tesla owners, Silicon Valley, and pretty much every media outlet on the planet.

If that sounds like a nightmare, it isn't.

Traditional carmakers would kill to have that level of attention paid to their doings. General Motors and Toyota have to spend billions to advertise and market their cars and trucks.

Tesla currently spends exactly zero dollars on advertising. Have a party and they will come
This is no disadvantage. In fact, Tesla can generate massive interest in its cars simply by holding a party in Los Angeles — which is what it will do this month, when it pulls the cover off its newest vehicle, the mass-market Model 3. A traditional car maker will typically send out teaser images and mount a public-relations campaign and reveal a new car at an auto show amid much stagecraft and hoopla, shoot video, hope that video goes viral, hammer away at social media, endure the slings and arrows of car critics, and so on.

Tesla will roll a Model 3 prototype out on stage and have Musk talk about it for 20 minutes. Journalists of every stripe will be on hand; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat will light up; every car-oriented blog and website on the globe will zip the photos around the internet. It won't be a typical car reveal — it will be a happening.

So Tesla has what we can call an "exorbitant privilege," to borrow a phrase coined in the 1960s to describe the US dollar's role as the world's reserve currency. What all other car companies must do, it need not. Full Story

Related: The EV-Hater's Guide to Hating Electric Cars

Whole Foods pulls pre-peeled oranges off shelves after Twitter backlash

First World Problems.

(nydailynews) - Whole Foods listened to the numerous furious Internet users Thursday by removing pre-peeled oranges packed in plastic containers from stores.

The backlash began after Nathalie Gordon shared a photo of the fruit in a California Whole Foods on her Twitter page with the caption “If only nature would find a way to cover these oranges so we didn't need to waste so much plastic on them.”

Just three hours later, Whole Foods responded, admitting to Gordon that the decision to peel the oranges was a “mistake.”

“Definitely our mistake,” @WholeFoods tweeted. “These have been pulled. We hear you, and we will leave them in their natural packaging: the peel.

Montana man accused of seeking 'second American revolution' faces sentencing

(FoxNews) - An anti-government activist from Montana faces sentencing in a US federal court on Thursday after being convicted of seeking out high-powered weaponry, which prosecutors say he wanted for an anticipated "second American revolution."

William Krisstofer Wolf was due to appear before U.S. District Judge Susan Watters in Billings.

A federal jury convicted the Gallatin County man on weapons charges in November, after Wolf bought a sawed-off automatic shotgun for $725 from an undercover FBI agent in the parking lot of a truck stop.

An automatic shotgun is categorized as a machine gun under federal law and can be bought only with a special permit, which Wolf did not have. Shotguns with shortened barrels also are illegal.

Prosecutors are seeking 10 years in prison for Wolf, a construction worker who ran an anti-government webcast called "The Montana Republic."

That's almost double what is recommended under federal sentencing guidelines. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan Whittaker said stiff a prison sentence was needed to deter Wolf and send a message to others who might contemplate violence against the government. Full Story

The worst drought in 900 years helped spark Syria's civil war

(Mashable) - The drought that played a role in triggering the catastrophic Syrian Civil War was the worst such climate event in at least the past 900 years, according to a new study published this week.

The study bolsters the conclusions from other research that found that because of human-made global warming, the drought was made three times more likely to occur, and that it was one of a number of factors that led to the outbreak of hostilities in 2011.

The new study examined tree-ring records showing the annual precipitation history from recent years back to the year 1100, across an area stretching from southern Europe to northern Africa to the Levant region of the Middle East.

The Levant region encompasses Cyprus, Israel-Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey.

The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, found that in the western Mediterranean, recent droughts have not yet departed from their natural variability, but in the east, including Syria, they have.

The conclusion about the Levant drought in particular increases confidence in computer model projections of future climate conditions.

Slovenia sends army to help manage migrant flow on border

(yahoonews) - Ljubljana (AFP) - The Slovenian parliament late Monday authorised the army to help police manage the flow of migrants crossing the Croatian border into Europe's Schengen passport-free zone, which has been rocked by the refugee crisis.

The bill sailed through, approved by 69 votes against five in the 90-seat parliament.

Prime Minister Miro Cerar told journalists ahead of the vote that it was "a natural move under the circumstances" given the relentless influx, adding: "It doesn't (authorise the army to take) military action, but it is to provide assistance to the police in border-guarding tasks."

The bill authorises the army to manage the flow of migrants across the border for three months, including by temporarily detaining groups of migrants and handing them over to police.

The army is also authorised to use force in case of an emergency to "ensure citizens' safety," Cerar said.

Earlier this month Slovenia tightened control of the migrant flow to avoid becoming a bottleneck, as its northern neighbour Austria limited the daily number of people transiting.

Slovenia, which has a 670-kilometre (410 miles) Schengen external border with Croatia, became a key transit country for migrants travelling from Greece towards Austria and Germany in mid-October when Hungary sealed its borders.

Since then, more 470,000 migrants have entered Slovenia and, after undergoing identification, crossed the border into Austria.

Interior Minister Vesna Gyorkos Znidar told lawmakers the army's support was urgently needed to ease pressure on police manning the border and enable them to "perform their tasks inside the country, where we expect significant problems when migrants are denied entrance (into Austria)." (Source)