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The Oroville Dam is just the beginning of California's flood fears

Kurt Snibbe
East Bat Times
Fri, 17 Feb 2017 14:12 UTC
Oroville Dam
© William Croyle/California Department of Water Resources via AP
This Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017, aerial photo released by the California Department of Water Resources shows the damaged spillway with eroded hillside in Oroville, Calif. Water will continue to flow over an emergency spillway at the nation’s tallest dam for another day or so, officials said Sunday.

RUNNETH OVER

This week, 188,000 Californians were evacuated because an emergency spillway was damaged at Lake Oroville.
With more rain coming and a massive snow pack piling up, the state's reservoirs and dams are being pushed to their limits

DAMS AND RESERVOIRS

According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's National Inventory of Dams, there are 1,585 dams in California.

At 770 feet tall the Lake Oroville Dam is the tallest in the U.S. It was finished in 1967.
Here is a profile of dams in California from the National Inventory of Dams.
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Sherlock

New Mexico Senator proposes bill to ban looking for Bigfoot

Piper McGowin
The Daily Sheeple
Fri, 17 Feb 2017 15:42 UTC
Bigfoot ban
You probably thought New Mexico wouldn't need an actual bill to specifically ban this.

Well, then you would be wrong.

Apparently public funds have been expended for college professors to take class trips in search of Bigfoot in New Mexico. To stop this practice, Senator George Munoz has sponsored a bill to ban public funds from being spent on "looking for or catching a fictitious creature" in his state.

To drive this point home, the bill doesn't just specify publicly funded searches for Bigfoot, but for Yeti, the Abominable Snowman, Pokemon, leprechauns and the Bogeyman as well.

Comment: Stay strong, New Mexico. The truth is out there.
'Bigfoots are real. The evidence shows it'

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Cowboy Hat

Multi-billion dollar investors urge banks to divest from #DAPL


RT
Sat, 18 Feb 2017 14:10 UTC
Wells Fargo protests
© Stephanie Keith / Reuters
More than 120 investors with over $650 billion in assets in banks financing the Dakota Access Pipeline have called on the financial institutes to support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's call to have the pipeline rerouted from Native American land.

Citigroup, Wells Fargo, SunTrust Bank and BNP Paribas are among the 17 banks targeted in a letter signed by pension funds, asset management companies, and organizations.

The signatories have a total of $653 billion in assets under their control.

"We are concerned that if DAPL's projected route moves forward, the result will almost certainly be an escalation of conflict and unrest as well as possible contamination of the water supply," the letter reads.

"Banks with financial ties to the Dakota Access Pipeline may be implicated in these controversies and may face long-term brand and reputational damage resulting from consumer boycotts and possible legal liability."
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Megaphone

National strike: Over 100 protests organized against Trump, with more to come


RT
Sat, 18 Feb 2017 13:49 UTC
anti-Trump protests
© TheDustyRebel/Facebook
A day after the "Day Without Immigrants" protests, more than 100 general strikes sprouted across the nation "to stand up for America's democratic principles."

On Friday, the group known as Strike4Democracy coordinated more than a hundred actions as a part of the #F17 protests, where tens of thousands of people took to the streets in major cities across the US, including Chicago, St. Louis, New York City, Pittsburgh and many more.

On their Facebook page, Strike4Democracy calls for a day of mass strikes against "ICE raids, travel bans, Trump's mobilization on the border wall, as well as attacks on the rights of workers, women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and our environment."

The group calls on participants to skip work and school, while refraining from spending any money.

In Denver, protesters shut down a downtown Wells Fargo Bank in protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Comment: Together, these useful idiots speak with one voice saying: NO to reality.

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Briefcase

Former Obama aide fined $90k over unethical lobbying for Uber


RT
Sat, 18 Feb 2017 13:44 UTC
UBER taxi
© Gary Cameron / Reuters
A former Barack Obama campaign manager turned Uber executive was fined $90,000 by the Chicago Board of Ethics for failing to register as a lobbyist while lobbying Mayor Rahm Emanuel on behalf of the rideshare company.

Uber executive David Plouffe was fined by the Chicago Board of Ethics after a 5-0 vote Thursday. They ruled that he had acted as an unregistered lobbyist in 2015 when he contacted Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) in regards to regulations for commercial drivers accepting passengers at city airports.

Plouffe managed Obama's 2008 presidential campaign before joining Uber. He is also working with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, NBC reported.

In addition to Plouffe's $90,000 fine, Uber will be fined $2,000. While neither Uber nor Plouffe disputes the allegations, they believe that Plouffe should only be required to pay the $1,000 minimum. However, the Board defended its decision by arguing that "each day that a violation continues shall constitute a separate and distinct offense to which a separate fine shall apply," the Chicago Tribune reported.

The illegal lobbying became public when Emanuel released hundreds of personal emails concerning public affairs due to mounting lawsuits accusing Emanuel of violating the state's open records law.
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Bomb

Car bomb in southeast Turkey kills child, wounds 15


RT
Sat, 18 Feb 2017 09:24 UTC
Town of Viransehir in Sanliurfa southern city of Turkey. February 17, 2017
© Depo Photos / Global Look Press via ZUMA Press
Town of Viransehir in Sanliurfa southern city of Turkey. February 17, 2017
A car bomb has exploded in front of government lodgings in the town of Viransehir in southeastern Turkey, killing a child and injuring 15 others, local media reports.

The blast happened around 8:45 pm local time (17:45GMT). Authorities believe the car belonged to a teenager who was seen parking the vehicle at the site of the explosion.


The bomb was detonated remotely, according to Sanliurfa Governor Gungor Azim Tuna. The young boy was killed and at least 15 others were injured in the blast. Conflicting reports suggested the child was either six or three years old.


Meanwhile, according to the information obtained from the provincial governor's office by Reuters, at least 17 people were injured.

Comment: See also:

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Handcuffs

Detained DACA recipient losing protection under program for being self-admitted gang member


RT
Fri, 17 Feb 2017 12:47 UTC
ICE deportations
© Charles Reed / ICE / AFP
A 23-year-old illegal immigrant currently being detained may no longer have protection from deportation under the DACA program, as the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement claim he is a "self-admitted gang member."

Daniel Ramirez Medina, who was brought to the US illegally at age 7, was arrested at his home in Des Moines, Washington, on February 10 during an ICE raid targeting his father who was in the country illegally and was a "prior-deported felon."

ICE agents noticed Ramirez' "gang tattoo," according to a Thursday court filing by Jeffrey Robins, assistant director of the US Office of Immigration Litigation. Ramirez was quizzed about the tattoo and gang affiliations, to which he responded that he "fled California to escape from the gangs," but "still hangs out with the Paizas in Washington State," the federal court documents say.

Comment: Complaint filed by 23yo DACA recipient 'unlawfully detained' by ICE

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Map

'Settlers are free to take what they want': Palestinian landowners fear for the worst as land-grab law is passed

Sheren Khalel
Mondoweiss
Fri, 17 Feb 2017 23:00 UTC
Fathy Shebana
© Mondoweiss/Sheren Khalel
Fathy Shebana, a farmer from Sinjil, told Mondoweiss he and his community fear for their future.
Fathy Shebana's family has lived in Sinjil, a rural village between Ramallah and Nablus for as long as any of them can remember. His family, mostly farmers, has land deeds distributed from the Ottoman era, passed down through generations and split up among sons, daughters and cousins, but always kept in the family.

Today, much of that land is gone — annexed by the Israeli occupation of the West Bank for the use of illegal Israeli settlements. Since Israel passed a new law on February 6, dubbed the Regularization Law, Fathy and his community fear for the future of their land and livelihoods.

The law retroactively legalized at least a dozen settlement outposts built on private Palestinian land, and laid the framework for easily legalizing other outposts in the future.
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Eye 1

Overnight stores installing facial recognition cameras allowing them to deny entry unless you show your face

Chris Hayes
Fox2Now
Fri, 17 Feb 2017 22:19 UTC
facial recognition
© pixabay
It's a new high tech tool tackling business robberies: facial recognition cameras. Crimes are so common at many overnight stores that the employees know it's just a matter of time before they get hit.

Former store clerk Erik Steffensen said he'll never forget his robber's words, "Hands up! Empty your registers!" He said his co-worker asked, "Wait, is this real right now?" He said the robber answered, "Oh this is very real."

Steffensen worked overnight to pay for his Mizzou classes by day. After the hold-up, he feared it would happen again as he heard news about more robberies nearby. He remembers telling himself, "So this is happening on my street, that means we're bound to get hit for sure."

It's getting so bad across the country, Atlanta leaders are proposing millions of tax dollars for extra police patrols to combat overnight robberies.

Comment: See also:

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Windsock

What is the student Left's culture of intolerance creating? A new generation of conservatives

Charlie Peters
The Telegraph
Fri, 17 Feb 2017 01:54 UTC
Students' campaign march
© Pete Lusabia/Alamy Live News
Students' campaign march through Oxford universities for removal of Cecil Rhodes statue. Glum bunch, eh?
Student demands for censorship get a lot of coverage. Spiked Online's Free Speech University Rankings, now in its third annual edition, argues that there is a "crisis of free speech on campus".

By analysing the censorious policies and actions that have taken place on British campuses, Spiked concluded that 63.5 percent of universities actively censor speech and 30.5 percent stifle speech through excessive regulation. You can barely go a few days without encountering a new op-ed covering censorship on campus. Maajid Nawaz describes the students demanding censorship as members of the "regressive left". Milo Yiannopoulos calls them "snowflakes".

With all of this book-burning and platform-denying madness sweeping up much of the media's interest in campus culture, the gradual rise of another group of students has gone under-reported. British and American millennials and post-millennials - also known as 'Gen Z' - are warming to conservatism. To understand why this is happening, it is important to consider the vast changes that have taken place in Western student politics over the last fifty years.

Comment: Students, in particular, are unwilling to be society's child. But, humanity is fickle. Duality, over time, is the universal 'dynamics balancer' of societal extremes.

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