Friday, March 30, 2018

In the news, Tuesday, March 20, 2018


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MAR 19      INDEX      MAR 21
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Information from some sites may not be reliable, or may not be vetted.
Some sources may require subscription.

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from Coeur d'Alene Press

The former Wild Waters waterpark has been undergoing demolition for a week and the work will take another three weeks, Peck and Peck Excavating owner Greg Peck said Monday. New homes have been found for all but one of the Coeur d’Alene park-turned-eyesore’s waterslides, said Peck. He added that the top of the hill wet vacationers slid down for years will itself be removed to make the property flatter, with a slight slope. The total difference in height will be about 25-30 feet, said Peck. The excavating company confirmed that the work is underway to get the property ready for its owner, Stacey Lavin, to place it on the market — sans waterpark equipment. Wild Waters has been abandoned since 2010. After Lavin shut it down that year, the park never reopened. It has experienced occasional incidents of vandalism, including one that cost nearly $500,000 and an unsuccessful 2011 lawsuit with its insurance company.

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from Defense News

Declassified: How an Israeli operation derailed Syria’s nuclear weapons drive
Israel’s pre-emptive attack a decade ago on a plutonium reactor in the Syrian desert not only derailed Damascus’ drive for nuclear weapons, but spared the world the specter of mass destruction capabilities falling into the hands of the Islamic State group. That’s the message behind Israel’s first-ever official account of its operation Outside the Box, the four-hour mission that began before midnight on Sep. 5, 2007, to destroy Syria’s top-secret and nearly operational al-Kibar nuclear facility just weeks before it went hot.

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from DW News (Deutsche Welle)
Broadcasting & Media Production Company in Bonn, Germany

Germany proposes Ulm as NATO logistics hub against Russia

Germany has put forward the southern city of Ulm as the site of a new logistics command to be built in response to Russian actions in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. If chosen, the city would be a base in any crisis operation to speed troops and equipment across Europe to NATO's eastern flank. The US has also offered to host the proposed NATO command at Norfolk, Virginia.

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from EUobserver
Media/News Company in Brussels, Belgium

Behind the scenes at Monday's EU talks on Russia
EU foreign ministers had an "exchange of ideas" on new Russia sanctions in the corridors of Monday's meeting.

'Denial' - is meat the new climate change?
The European Parliament's agriculture committee meets on Tuesday, with speculation that the EPP will vote against a report on the EU plant protein plan if it mentions switching away from animals to plant-based diets.

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from The Guardian (UK)
LEFT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, daily newspaper

'Catastrophe' as France's bird population collapses due to pesticides
Dozens of species have seen their numbers decline, in some cases by two-thirds, because insects they feed on have disappeared

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from Hoover Institution
Nonprofit Organization in Stanford, California

The Syrian Rebellion And Its International Resonance
With all the optimism of the Arab Spring, the Syrian rebellion began with the belief that the people of Syria deserve better than the cruelty meted out by Assad family rule. That aspiration alone ought to be sufficient grounds to stand with the democratic forces pursuing self-determination. Yet the United States has been hesitating, a legacy of the Obama administration’s preference for tyranny in Tehran over freedom in Damascus.  We should reject that sort of cynicism: not only because it is wrong to abandon the rebels pursuing a noble cause, but also because of the moral corruption we ourselves face when we dismiss even the possibility of genuine principles and bona fide ideals.

The Syrian Great Game
By definition “great games” are complicated with lots of moving parts.  Battles on the ground, intense, myriad, and sometimes fratricidal, always connect, however indirectly, to the larger collision of great powers.  In Syria, the tug-of-war is a lopsided affair, where Iran, Russia, and the Alawite regime of Bashar al-Assad are invested in winning.  The opposing side—Syrian Arab Sunnis, Sunni Gulf Arabs, Israel, the United States, and Turkey—is barely an entente.  In the most destructive conflict the modern Middle East has seen (the runner up, the Iran-Iraq war, though comparably lethal, was less destructive to civilians), Tehran and Moscow may not be able to reclaim all of the territory lost by Assad, but they have invested what is needed to regain the most essential parts of the country.

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from LifeZette (& PoliZette)
Media/News Company in Washington, D. C.

Armed Officer Confronts Maryland School Shooter, Hogan Hits Legislators
Governor says 'it's outrageous we haven't taken' important steps yet in protecting students after Great Mills High attack. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) thanked first responders who “swiftly and bravely took action to secure the school. The first lady and I are praying for those who were injured, their families and loved ones, and for the entire Great Mills community as they come together to heal in the wake of this horrific situation.” Hogan said, however, that “prayers are not enough. Although our pain remains fresh and the facts remain uncertain, today’s horrible events should not be an excuse to pause our conversation about school safety. Instead, it must serve as a call to action.”

The ‘Deep State’ Is Real — and Dangerous — Paul Says
Kentucky senator says unelected intelligence officials with enormous powers operate with little legislative oversight in the executive branch.

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from National Review
RIGHT BIAS

The Confederate Mind
Progressives such as Elizabeth Warren resurrect the race-based thinking of the antebellum South: ‘One drop’ and you’re a bona fide minority. Senator Elizabeth Warren has doubled down on her insistence that she is Native American. In her past incarnations, she probably used that yarn in hopes of helping her win a law professorship at Harvard, which touted her as the law school’s first indigenous-American professor (and others apparently referenced her as Harvard Law’s “first woman of color”). She has refused to back down (and also refused to take a DNA test), even after Native American genealogists disputed her claim.

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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

Cutbacks to opioid prescriptions leave chronic pain patients without help
Opioid addiction is getting more attention nationally, but a Washington State University researcher says not enough is being done to help patients transition to non-opioid pain management.

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from The Washington Post
Newspaper in Washington, D.C.

The five Sullivan brothers, serving together, were killed in World War II. Their ship was just found.
Thomas Sullivan was getting ready for work in Waterloo, Iowa, when three men in Navy uniforms walked up to his front door. “I have some news for you about your boys,” one of the officers said, according to an excerpt of the conversation in the Red State blog. All five of Sullivan’s sons had enlisted in the U.S. Navy after the Pearl Harbor attack, and on that January morning in 1943, he wanted to know which one wasn’t coming home. “All five,” the officer said.

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