Cleanup is underway after nearly 3 million gallons of brine, a salty, toxic byproduct of oil and natural gas production, leaked from a pipeline in western North Dakota, the largest spill of its kind in the state since the current energy boom began.

The full environmental impact of the spill, which contaminated two creeks, might not be clear for months. Some previous saltwater spills have taken years to clean up. A contractor hired by the pipeline operator will be on site Thursday, assessing the damage.

Operator Summit Midstream Partners LLC detected the pipeline spill on Jan. 6, about 15 miles north of Williston and informed North Dakota officials then. State health officials on Wednesday said they weren't given a full account of the size until Tuesday.

Update: Amendments added to the ordinance slightly changed the final ban to not effect parks or outdoor shopping malls, according to the Times-Picayune. Fines will also begin at $50. A previous version of this story said fines began at $100.

New Orleans passed a far-reaching smoking ban on Thursday that prohibits lighting up in bars, casinos, private clubs - even in the car while waiting in line at a drive-thru.

Claiming there is no "constitutional right" to smoke, the New Orleans City Council unanimously voted to outlaw smoking and electronic cigarettes in indoor and outdoor public places.

The ordinance, which goes into effect in 90 days, applies to bars, casinos, parks, private clubs, any business establishment, recreational areas, sports arenas, theaters, and a host of other places.

"[T]here is no legal or constitutional 'right to smoke,'" the ordinance said. "Business owners have no legal or constitutional right to expose their employees and customers to the toxic chemicals in secondhand smoke. On the contrary, employers have a common law duty to provide their workers with a workplace that is not unreasonably dangerous."

The ordinance was coauthored by Democratic councilmembers LaToya Cantrell, a former "community organizer," and Susan Guidry.

The smoking ban carries $50 fines for a person who smokes a cigarette, natural or synthetic marijuana, or e-cigarettes in "public places."

Public places include aquariums, laundromats, parking structures, trailer parks, condos, restaurants, shopping malls, outdoor stadiums and amphitheaters, libraries, theaters, lobbies, and more.

Supporters of a new law criminalizing drug use during pregnancy say it's supposed to get women treatment. Then why is this woman going to jail?

Last year, Tennessee became the first state to define drug use during pregnancy as a crime. Women whose newborns test positive for narcotic drugs can be charged with assault and punished with up to 15 years of prison.

When critics of the measure -- which included everyone from addiction counselors to doctors to Obama's drug czar -- pointed out that terrorizing pregnant addicts with the threat of prison would not be helpful in the treatment of their condition, supporters shot back that they didn't want to put women in jail; the law would merely allow prosecutors to help push women into rehab.

Illinois can't seem to decide whether it's the home of midwestern gentlefolk or of the most draconian humans this side of Moscow.

One of the state's newest laws, for example, may have goodness at its heart. However, it may have something else in various of its extremities.

The law, which went into effect on January 1, is designed to curb cyberbullying, but it also could encourage schools to pry into students' personal lives.

KTVI-TV reported that the law was already making some parents deeply uncomfortable. That's because one of its stipulations is troubling.

A former sex offender has been taken into custody after Nebraska police discovered he had forced a woman in a long-term abusive relationship with him to sign a 'slave contract,' the Journal-Star reports.

Nicholas Allen Talbot, 35, was charged with second-degree domestic assault, after the unidentified woman showed injuries she had sustained to her pastor who contacted police authorities.

"They were horrific," said the Rev. Kathy Gouin of the Lincoln Foursquare Church.

According to authorities, Talbot forced the 32-year-old woman to sign what he said was a legal document titled "Slave Contract" on Jan. 15.

In an affidavit, Lincoln Police Officer Angela Morehouse said that document stated the woman "only had rights the master gave her."

The affidavit states that Talbot whipped the woman, burned her with cigarettes, and forced her to drink his urine several times a day.

Police discovered burn marks on the woman's spine, buttocks, and one breast where the woman said Talbot used a heated screwdriver.

According to Morehouse, the woman had "PROPERTY OF NICK" written on her left arm in black marker.

The woman explained to investigators that Talbot had been abusing her nearly 10 years, but she had been afraid to go the police because she had been led to believe they were part of Talbot's "company" or "gang," Morehouse said.

The woman stated that he had threatened to have her parents and grandmother killed in front of her if she didn't obey him.

The Rev. Gouin said she has known the woman for approximately one year and described her as "very sweet and innocent' and "vulnerable."

"She's very innocent and believes people," Gouin said.

Talbot previously served three years in prison for sexually assaulting a child twice in 1998, and is being held in jail pending bail.

"I only wish I had killed more." Navy Seal and American Shame (Sniper), Chris Kyle

"I can't kill anyone." US working-class soldier before his short deployment to Iraq, Casey Sheehan

This is something that I don't want to revisit - I never want to relive the worst experience of my life. However, with the 11^th anniversary of my son's death in Iraq on 04/04/04 approaching and the new "blockbuster" infecting movie screens around the world, I really must get this off of my chest.

Most citizens of this nation are without a doubt addicted to wars and war "heroes" without stopping for more than a few cursory seconds to count the costs or evaluate the propaganda. I despair that a movie like American Sniper grossed over 105 million at the box office over the weekend where we are supposed to be commemorating the birth of a man of peace, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Everything in American Sniper is taken for fact when the author and focus Chris Kyle already had been proven to have been a blowhard and a liar, when the facts and political motivations ofSelma are being questioned.

As is the US addicted to its wars, it is also addicted to lying about them and I know this because I have my own case about Casey for proof. We got the news about Casey about 14 hours or so after his detail had been ambushed in Iraq. After I lie on the floor screaming for I don't know how long, the three emissaries of death couldn't really tell us much except that he was Killed In Action (KIA) - I still can't see a KIA brand car without my heart sinking.

Authorities removed seven homeschooled children from an Arkansas "prepper" family during a search for a bogus "miracle" cure their father uses.

State troopers and Garland County authorities executed a search warrant Jan. 12 at the home of Hal and Michelle Stanley, and their school-age children were taken by ambulance for a medical examination after officers found containers marked "MMS."

"Gorlovka was under shelling from 7:00 until 20:00. Ukrainian army didn't hesitate to use number of various accoutrements. They had no target: shells landed on playgrounds, at hospitals and schools." - Alexander Kots, reporter for KP.

Gorlovka heaviest shelling: Aftermath. 19/01/2015

English subtitles by Olga Luzanova

War reporters for Komsomolskaya Pravda Alexander Kots and Dmitry Steshin visited Gorlovka the next day after massed air raid, in the result of which about 30 people were killed and many got serious injuries. Below you can find the transcript abstracts of the accounts by the locals.

Protesters calling for Justice for John Geer recently demonstrated outside the police department in the Massey building on Thursday in Fairfax, Virginia... Most of the protesters did not know Geer, but they said it was important for everyday citizens to take a stand against injustice and demand police accountability now!

"I feel like I could be next," Keith Harmon of Mount Vernon said. He was spotted holding a sign reading: "Q: Who investigates Fairfax Police? A: Themselves. FBI. No one."

Harmon explained that his neighbor "could well call the police, say I'm a madman with a gun, and the cops may show up and kill me."

That's about right...

It's been nearly 17 months since John Geer bleed to death after being shot in his doorway by a Fairfax County Police Officer on August 29, 2013. Geer had been standing, unarmed, with his hands his head on the doorframe, speaking with police officers for 50 minutes when one of them inexplicably fired one shot into his chest. When the SWAT team pushed into his house with an MRAP an hour later, John Geer was lying behind the door, dead.

It's important to note that Geer committed no crime. The entire incident started when Geer's partner, Maura Harrington, called the police to report that John was throwing her belongings out of the house. He'd become distraught after learning she was moving out and ending their relationship after 24 years. Harrington, one of Geer's two teenage daughters, his father, and his best friend were all on site, watching as the unbelievable tragedy unfolded before them. They have watched and waited for nearly 17 months as the Fairfax County Police Department and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors have stonewalled all attempts to get even basic information regarding what happened that day.

They have been captured but not killed; moreover, the doctors try to bring them back to life. Our special correspondents Alexander Kots and Dmitry Steshin report from the Donbass:

At Donetsk Airport the Militia captured sixteen ATO participants. Half of these "cyborgs" (as Kiev calls the Ukrainian soldiers who fought in the terminals and dungeons of Donetsk Airport) "entered captivity" by themselves - they drove in armoured vehicles into the hottest point of the battle for the Donbass - the airport, allegedly without even knowing that it had already long since passed under the control of DPR fighters. The 'fatherly' Ukrainian commanders somehow forgot to tell their subordinates about the true combat situation at the airport.

One of the captives said that they had been given the task not of attacking the Militia, but of evacuating the wounded in an armoured tractor. Thanks to the fog, they had quietly approached the remains of the airport, but had then been quickly disarmed and sent to Donetsk. The second contingent of "cyborgs," eight people, was pulled from the rubble of the new terminal by the Militiamen themselves. In the wreckage of metal and concrete they had lain for four days. They were immediately taken from the airport to the city's emergency department.