Society's Child
Palm Harbor, Florida - In a strongly-worded email sent today to all of Florida's 67 county sheriffs, the Libertarian Party of Florida demanded the arrest of TSA agents for violations of the U.S. and Florida Constitutions, and accused TSA agents of committing sexual battery. The letter reads as follows:
Dear Sheriff,
On this day in 1776, our forebears founded this Nation by declaring their independence from an oppressive government. This beautiful and timeless document expressed the self-evident truth that all people have certain inalienable rights, upon which no government can infringe. They asserted that governments are formed among men to secure these rights, not to impede or restrict them.
The Libertarian Party of Florida is reaching out to you, and to all of Florida's 67 Constitutional Sheriffs. We, The People of the State of Florida must turn to you as our last line of defense against a federal government that is usurping authority and ignoring the rule of law.

The first of the false tweets was posted around 2 a.m. ET. They were still up eight hours later, with no explanation of their origin.
The site took down the false tweets after several were there for hours.
The alleged victim in this case, who was originally described as a hard-working, unassuming Guinean immigrant, appears to be a bit more mysterious than was originally reported. For example, there now appear to be possible links between her and people involved in criminal activities which include drug dealing and money laundering.

An explosion sparked a fire at the Tricastin nuclear power plant. Some 74% of France’s electricity comes from nuclear sources.
Blast at EDF's Tricastin power station in Drôme comes days after nuclear authorities found 32 safety concerns at plant
An explosion sparked a fire at a French nuclear power station on Saturday, just two days after the authorities found 32 safety concerns at the plant.
The blaze at the Tricastin plant in Drôme in the Rhône valley sent a thick cloud of black smoke into the sky. A mistral wind sent it south over a nearby motorway on one of the busiest travel days of the year as the French left for their summer holidays.
EDF, which runs the power station, said the incident took place in an electric transformer situated in the non-nuclear part of the plant and had not resulted in any radiation leak or any other contamination. A statement issued by the energy giant raised further concerns as it omitted to mention the explosion - only a fire - and did not give the cause of the blaze.
"This event happened in the non-nuclear part of the installation and had no radiological consequence on the environment and the population. The fire brigade was immediately called and the fire was rapidly brought under control. Nobody was hurt," it said.
The U.S. could have been a leader in the subsequent worldwide trend toward death penalty abolition; instead the U.S. has become an outlier along with a minority of other countries (like China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia) that still kill prisoners.
What might have been?
Three of those 7 justices (Stevens, Blackmun and Powell) have since regretted their vote in Gregg, meaning that if there could be some sort of time-travel Stevens, Blackmun and Powell's Excellent Adventure do-over, the death penalty might have never come back.
But, as with executing likely innocent people, you can't go back in time to undo your mistakes. The death penalty did come back.

With the shutdown of state parks, Minnesotans are flocking to Wisconsin state parks to camp and cool off in park waters. Willow River State Park northeast of Hudson is an easy drive from the Twin Cities and rewards the traveler with beaches, campgrounds and waterfalls. Willow River State Park campground is filled to capacity this holiday weekend largely due to Minnesotans crossing over the border due to the government shutdown.
With the shutdown of state parks, Minnesotans are flocking to Wisconsin state parks to camp and cool off in park waters. Willow River State Park northeast of Hudson is an easy drive from the Twin Cities and rewards the traveler with beaches, campgrounds and waterfalls. Willow River State Park campground is filled to capacity this holiday weekend largely due to Minnesotans crossing over the border due to the government shutdown.
Minnesota stands to lose millions of dollars in revenue and get saddled with millions more in new expenses for every week that the widespread shutdown of state government persists.
In both subtle and stark ways, the shutdown that began Friday will bring new financial pain to the state treasury. Closing many operations will save the state some money, but an array of revenue sources as diverse as the lottery and highway toll lanes have been cut off.

A tranquilised female bear after being captured in Slovenia. It was to be released elsewhere in Europe as part of plans to reintroduce the species.
Police have broken up a banquet of bear meat hosted by Silvio Berlusconi's powerful coalition partner in northern Italy after government ministers and animal rights groups described the event as scandalous.
The order to down cutlery came as about 200 people lined up to devour grilled and stewed bear at a rally in Imer in the Italian Dolomites organised by the Northern League.
Organisers said they had bought the meat legally in Slovenia to get round a ban on bear hunting in Italy, but food safety officers from Italy's paramilitary carabinieri police objected to the lack of import documentation for the 50kg of meat.
Speaking at the event, Enzo Erminio Boso, a former League senator, said he suspected the raid had been arranged by members of Berlusconi's People of Liberty party who earlier demanded that League leader Umberto Bossi halt proceedings.
Accelerated pace of commercial short covering.
Houston - We here at Got Gold Report are keenly interested in over-sized changes in the positioning of the largest, best funded and presumably the best informed traders of gold and silver futures on the planet - the traders classed as "commercial." Witness a truly historic one-week plunge in the commercial net short positioning for gold futures traded in New York on the COMEX division of the CME.